Aesthetics
by Enigmatic Ethereality
Summary: Ino/Sakura-Yuri, Rated:M, Ino's life is falling to ruin around her; drugs, sex, and psychological problems provoke her to want to relinquish it all. Sakura, the girl with the large forehead and equally large heart helps her value herself once more.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated copyrighted property. I also do not own "Addicted" by Saving Abel. All I own is my imagination and therefore, this plot.  
Rating: Mature for language, drug usage, sexual references, and lesbianism (because apparantly, that's only for mature audiences).**

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_"No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly." -Oscar Wilde_

**Chapter 1**

Thick white smoke floated about the inside of the car in a lethargic, almost hypnotizing, manner. Ino's head felt light and warm but she didn't question whether or not she should be doing what she was; she only took a long drag of whatever it was Sasuke had brought to her late that night. He leaned forward, kissing her gently but sloppily on the neck and Ino nearly lost consciousness. Her skin felt _so_ sensitive. Her body was on fire.

What _was_ this feeling? _What the hell was she smoking?_

He stealthily snatched away her smoke, leaving her mouth to fall open empty. His eyes strayed from her glazed, red rimmed eyes to her pale pink lips. Taking a drag, his dark eyes connected with hers again. They were a brilliant blue, but that was hard to see when they were half open due to inebriation. He watched her watch him, wondering what she was thinking. In reality, it didn't look like much but he knew otherwise. He vaguely remembered his first time getting high; he knew her mind was _everywhere._

He leaned forward and his dark onyx locks fell towards Ino, brushing against her skin. Her body tensed up and her cheeks reddened even more. He parted his lips, allowing the joint to fall from his mouth and into Ino's generous cleavage. He grabbed her wrists and smashed his lips against her quivering ones. His mouth captured her scream as she fought to free her arms and remove the item that was burning the flesh between her breasts.

Ino never stood a chance because Sasuke was incredible built and she… well she was about as weak as she'd ever been in her lifetime. Tears slipped between her closed eyelids and she wondered how a night out with her boyfriend had turning into something like this.

Sasuke pressed his body against Ino causing her breasts to smother out the burning drug. Pulling away, his ears rang with the pained scream that finally met the warm air. He still held her arms down, watching her squirm and pant due to the fact that her skin was burned and she was in a great deal of pain. She screamed again, her unfocused eyes flashing hate as she opened them and glared at him.

"Bastard!" she yelled at him causing him to smirk. "What the fuck is your problem!?"

"Sorry babe," he muttered before kissing her on the corner of her mouth. He reached into her shirt and Ino tensed once again. His fingers brushed against the burning flesh, causing her to groan in pain, as he fished out his joint.

He finally let her go and pulled back before lighting it again. He took a long drag of it before passing it back to Ino. He was kind of glad that Ino had insisted they drove her car. He knew his older brother would have a fit if he smelled the slightest bit of weed.

His fingers met her long blonde hair which was loose and messy. She looked absolutely sexy; he had never wanted her more before in his life. He took the joint from her lips and kissed her, taking in the thick smoke that seeped from her lungs as she exhaled slowly. He stubbed out the smoke in her cup holder before losing his fingers in a river of silky blonde.

Ino moaned, knowing what was coming next. She had wanted it all night and the drugs had only made her lust grow. Sasuke knew how to make her feel good and with this new feeling flowing through her system she knew that she would feel better than she ever had before. His fingers played with the hem of her soft purple plaid skirt and she knew that it was only a matter of time.

* * *

Her head was throbbing and it was dark; sort of. Her unfocused eyes seemed to be overwhelmed by sudden, blinding light. She sat up, despite the pain in her head, and squinted, trying to look around.

"Please step out of the vehicle, miss," she heard an unfamiliar voice request.

"Oh shit," she muttered realizing she was on her own. Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Sasuke?" she asked out loud.

"Excuse me?" the officer asked. "Was there someone else with you?"

She didn't reply, but shakily pulled herself out of her car. The cool breeze of the night, or early morning, caused a revelation as it played with the edges of her skirt. She looked around before spotting her underwear in the passenger seat. Glancing back up at the officer who had a disgusted look on his face, she blushed.

"Please turn around and stand with your feet apart."

Ino blushed as the light from his flashlight fell to a spot on the ground. Her eyes widened as the flashlight revealed a half smoked joint in the dirt. The officer didn't pat her down much and Ino felt grateful for that.

"May I look around in your car?" he asked and Ino nodded dumbly. She couldn't think straight.

Unfortunately for her, what Sasuke had left behind caused the police officer much alarm and she was taken to the station.

* * *

Ino sat in the back seat of the car only wanting to sleep. The sun was now peaking over the horizon and dawn was breaking the hard, cold darkness of the night. The calmness of nature was not mirrored by what was going on in the car, however. Her father was driving and her mother was in the passenger seat. The two of them were arguing mercilessly; like they did whenever they were put together.

"Weed?! Do you see why it would've been better for Ino to stay with me? She wouldn't be like this if she were staying with me," her mother huffed before crossing her arms and looking out of the window with a hard blue glare. Ino seemed to be a spitting image of her beautiful mother; long blonde hair, amazing blue eyes, generous breasts, and a feisty mouth were what she inherited from her.

"What?! As if she's not already exactly like you anyways!" her father argued back. "She'd probably be worse off with you; I at least make time for her every now and then."

"And how long is that "every now and then"? Hmm?" the blonde woman argued back.

"We spend time together every month," he muttered and Ino scoffed. It was more like every five months because, quoting his own words, "He was a very important and busy businessman."

"_Fuck him and his stupid CEO job,"_ Ino wanted to spit at him. Clenching her jaw tightly, she only listened on, fighting back a few choice words for the both of them.

"Whatever," her mother scoffed in reply. "She could've at least chosen a better drug; Marijuana? Really? I thought I raised her better than that."

"Are you serious? Did you really just say that?!" Ino's father was enraged. "The only thing you taught her to be is a whore… Sleeping around with boys at her age. Unbelievable. And her fucking eating disorder is all your fault too. If you weren't such a narcissistic bitch, she wouldn't think she had to vomit all of her food all of the time!"

Ino sighed, shutting her tired eyes.

"_Does it fucking matter_?" she asked herself. "_Does it matter why I'm like this? The both of you fucked me up anyways; so what does it matter?_"

It would be a _long_ week at home, without her car. Her dad had "grounded her indefinitely" but knowing him, he'd forget all about him within a few days and she'd be free to do as she pleased. For some reason, that thought didn't comfort her as much as she thought it would.

"Ino knows how to take care of herself well. She knows if she ever wants a good man, she'll have to lose all of that baby fat that she got from your fat ass," her mother insulted.

Silence soaked into the car eerily, but Ino knew that it was just a hoax. "Well if she's anything like me then this guy she's with is probably the scum of the Earth!" her mother spat, emphasizing the last four words of the sentence.

"As if you're any less the scum than I am. I didn't decide to leave my family because I wanted to 'be young again'!" he accused in a mocking way.

Ino bent over in her seat, pressing the hard ends of her palms, where her wrists met her hands, into her sweaty temples as hard as she could. Her parents were so _wrong_ for each other. "_Why the hell did they ever get married? As if a kid was worth sitting through this,"_ she groaned internally. Why did she get stuck with such a pathetic pair?

"You know what? Fuck you," Ino's mom spat. "And fuck you for getting me pregnant! And fuck you for making me marry you and have that little bitch!"

Ino didn't have to see her mother's gesture to know that the "little bitch" was her. She'd heard that story time and time again—so much in fact, that it shouldn't hurt, but it did. It did still hurt.

Ino hated it.

Ino hated her life.

Ino wanted to die.

Her father came to a stop in front of her mother's boyfriend's house. He was rich and the blonde woman seemed to be living off of him, like some sort of parasite. She merely got out of the car and slammed the door shut as hard as she could.

"Fuck her," Ino heard her father hissed before driving off towards their house.

When they arrived, he merely got out of the car and said absolutely nothing to Ino, too furious to even look at and speak to her. The blue eyed girl sighed, completely sober. She'd kill to have that high she'd had in the car with Sasuke at that exact moment. Stumbling up to her room Ino stripped down for a shower.

Within the cascading water, she fell into her mind which was still quite hazy despite the fact that the effects of the drug were over.

Getting out of the shower Ino hobbled over to the mirror. She hadn't known that her father knew about her eating disorder… she thought she had hidden it well, not that he'd care anyway. Her deep blue eyes were rimmed with dark bags and she was hungry. Ino had learned to fight the urges for food for a very long time; she'd be alright until lunch that day.

Her fingers traced her collar bones, which were beginning to protrude in a questionable fashion. Her eyes fell to the small burn that was between her breasts. Ino marveled at the idea of something so small causing such a large kind of pain. It didn't seem right, but what was right in her world anyways?

Her hands rested on her perfectly flat stomach. She pressed down, feeling just the slightest bit of fat and suddenly felt disgusted with herself.

Ino got dressed quickly, no longer wanting to see her naked body. She sat on her bed knowing she was too wired now to fall asleep. Her head was throbbing and her heart was aching. Sasuke had left her behind and for the first time in a long while, she let the idea of her being unloved numb her heart.

Her parents didn't love her, her boyfriend didn't love her, and she obviously didn't have any real friends. She was at the lowest of lows, the deepest catacombs of the terrible cavernous earth and she just wanted to escape. Escape her pathetic life. Escape her parents' lack of love and selflessness. Escape her pain.

Escape. Escape. _Escape._

_Escape._

Ino stood suddenly and slipped downstairs in an eerie calmness. She'd finally come to her conclusion. She'd find an escape alright; an escape much stronger and permanent than Sasuke, or drinking, or drugs, or sex. Tired blue eyes watched her from the mirror she stood before. Those eyes that had once seemed unfathomably deep and incorrigibly brilliant seemed depthless and tepid. All signs of life had bleed empty, leaking with the many tears she had shed for all of her past hopelessness. Those eyes stared back only to remind her of what she wished to escape; the pains of an insensitive world.

_Escape._

The whispered insanity drove her closer to her goal as she impatiently flung the mirror open. Shelf upon shelf of prescription medication was revealed to those tepid eyes. Eyes that were once empty were filled with the possibility of the final escape. Ino wasted no time in collecting as many bottles of pills as she could, making sure to grab the OxyCotin, Amoxicillin, and the other many different forms of pain relievers she could find. She soon found herself in her room on her oversized bed with about seven different pill bottles all laid out on her soft lavender comforter.

She opened up the first pain reliever bottle and dumped all of the pills on her bed. Viewing the small, white pills she wondered how many of these would she need to take to finish the job? Would they do her in while she danced in a light, dreamy drugged sleep or would they just cause damage to her liver and hurt her for a long while until she finally stopped functioning? She glanced over at her computer, wanting to research a little. Things as such always poked annoyingly at her lazy curiosity.

Somehow, she found herself sitting in front of her computer, but not searching for "how many pain killers would it take to finish the job". Instead she was on Facebook, because it happened to be her homepage. Instead she found herself publishing a new "Note" about god knows what. Her fingers moved swiftly across the hard clattering keys of her keyboard, pouring out words she knew not the origin of. A suicide letter—her final words before her permanent escape.

_**Title: **__What you didn't know: Why I did it._

_**Body: **__I'm writing this because I plan on killing myself. In fact, I might have already done it. The idea itself makes my body tense in anticipation. So I am dead and it is mostly of my own doing._

_For the past few months, even years, I've been hiding away a pain so terrible that I decided to choose death over feeling it any more. I've been used, neglected, uncared for, and most of all ignored. I have been depressed for so long, that I don't even know what feeling happy feels like or even just feeling alright. I'm most of all tired of all of these synthetic substitutes for feeling better. I'd become an avid smoker and within the past three months I've never missed smoking three times a day._

_I'm sure you're wondering why I started smoking and being chronically depressed. It's really a tender subject, but since I've decided to get everything off of my chest before I die today, I guess it doesn't really matter if I say it or not. When my parents divorced I felt like it was my fault. In fact, they often said that it was and complained about how much they just didn't want me. They argued and yelled and finally split up. When it came to deciding who was going to keep me, they argued about that too. I really did feel terrible enough, they didn't need to put me in the middle of their "who's going to keep the mistake" arguments, but they did. In the end, my dad took me because he felt that he'd be able to take care of me better._

_I kind of agreed with that; my mom isn't financially stable in any way. She's a gold digger who just happened to get knocked up and have me. The bad thing was, in addition to the previous problems, I saw her in me in everything I did and the worst was looking into the mirror and seeing her stare back at me. I soon became very disgusted with my body and my appearance in general. Make up was being packed on and I began to throw up everything I ate and eat less._

_When Sasuke finally decided to date me, I felt that I was doing something right. Turns out all he wanted from me was sex, of course. Fuck him. He's an asshole. I wish I could take him to hell with me. But then, this final deed would be in vain, wouldn't it? This escape wouldn't be an escape if Sasuke were to be with me. It'd just be an eternal hell, worse than I could ever imagine._

_Fuck him. Fuck my parents. And most of all fuck me. And don't you even dare think about coming to my funeral and saying a damn thing about me. We aren't friends. We never were. Fuck you._

Ino hit the post button without hesitation, knowing no one would even look at it. She had made sure not to tag anyone anyways. Biting her lip, she changed her status to "Ino Yamanaka doesn't regret it" just for the extra hint of melodrama. Heading back to her bed, she laid on her side staring idly at the pills that littered the surface. She realized she hadn't even researched the effect of the drugs. No doubt her body would be in amazing pain.

Sitting up, she quickly swallowed three pills dry wondering if she should get any water. She didn't want to waste any time, but she felt that it might be necessary to make it comfortable for herself. Swallowing down two more pills, she went downstairs to obtain a glass of water. It was empty and silent. Ino knew her father was asleep. He'd find her dead, after he woke up, if he even bothered to seek her out later. Perhaps a maid would find her instead.

As the blonde filled up the glass, she wondered if her father would feel bad at all. Probably not, she finally decided. As the clear liquid rose to the rim, Ino suddenly felt filled with a strange kind of tranquility. She'd soon find her peace.

Heading back upstairs to her bedroom, Ino sat down on her bed again. She reached down blindly and grabbed three more pills to take. How much longer, she wondered, until her ultimate escape? Ino suddenly felt strange. Her body was on fire. Her heart was thundering and Ino could hear her pulse reverberating through her skull. Was she close, she wondered? Would she finally find her peace?

"_I'm so addicted to all the things you do; when you're going down on me, in-between the sheets,"_ Ino heard her ringtone blare causing her head to pound even more. She felt dizzy. How long had she _really_ been sitting there?

"_Or the sound you make with every breath you take," _her cell phone continued to scream. Ino wanted to ignore the phone, she really did. No doubt it was Sasuke calling her up to get in her pants again, but it was annoying her. Something inside made her decide to answer it anyways. Her head was heavy and she lay down; the pills slid and rolled towards the dip in the bed she'd made. She would die there, in this little depression in her bed, in a few moments.

Lifting her phone she cut off the noise by answering it. Her fingers were numb and weak. She held the phone to her ear, not saying anything. Just breathing deeply; breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in… Breathe…

"_Ino?_" the person on the phone asked. She was surprised to hear a feminine voice. So it wasn't Sasuke… who was it then? She didn't answer. Her throat was tight and swollen. What was going on?

"_Ino! Oh please, please don't… Ino!"_

Who was this? Ino groaned into the receiver in pain due to the high volume of the voice through the cell phone. Her ear was ringing.

"_Oh, Ino. You're still," _the person paused before speaking._ "Are you alright?"_

Ino groaned once again, shutting her eyes. There was such a strong pressure behind them, plus she couldn't really focus on anything. Her stomach was in so much pain; it hurt so much.

"_Ino?"_

"What?" the blonde managed to whisper before hearing a relieved sigh.

"_I asked if you were alright. I read your note on Facebook, and I was really worried," _the voice said. Ino felt utterly surprised. Someone was worried about her? Was that even possible? Who the hell was this?

"Who…" Ino felt very tired suddenly. "Who is…?"

"_Ino… what's wrong with you? Why do you sound so…?"_

Ino chuckled wry before curling up on her bed in a fetal position. Would she even be able to tell her?

"I just… took a lot of pills. I'll be fine soon."

"_Ino, please listen to me. Don't take any more."_

"Who is this?"

"_That doesn't matter… Just don't take any more medicine, ok? I don't want you to die."_

Ino groaned again, feeling light headed and numb all over. Her limbs were tingling.

"_I'll be right over, Ino."_

Ino didn't respond and pushed the phone away from her. How many pills had she taken anyways? How long would it take for the mysterious girl to come to her house? Would she be dead by then?

Her fingers slipped beneath the sheet of white pills. She put another one in her mouth, but didn't have the motivation to swallow it. It began to dissolve on her tongue. It was bitter and disgusting; just like her life.

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**A/N: I'm back... somewhat. I'm just trying something new - we'll have to see how it goes. Please leave reviews, they're the only things in my busy life that'll remind me/motivate me to actually update. (which is exactly why this story was posted to begin with :D). I suppose that's all.**

**Thank you for reading  
****-E.E.**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated copyrighted property. All I own is my imagination and therefore, this plot.  
Rating: Mature for language, drug usage, sexual references, and lesbianism (because apparantly, that's only for mature audiences).**

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_"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to revceive it." -Ivan Panin_

**CHAPTER 2**

Ino's head was swimming. Her body felt clammy and cold. She knew these were her final moments. She heard some sort of noise and struggled to open her eyes. The moment her eyelids parted slightly, she knew she'd never be able to focus for long. Standing in front of her was… was…

Ino struggled to remember who it was who was standing before her.

"Who…" she struggled to ask her sentence until the pill that she had let dissolve in her mouth slipped out with a generous amount of saliva.

"Oh, Ino," the other girl breathed. "I already called 911," she spoke gently. She gathered the pills in her hands and dumped them on the bedside table. The clattering sound they made was sharp and loud; it made Ino flinch. Climbing onto the bed, she gently touched Ino's arm.

"Ino, can you hear me?"

Ino groaned, gazing blindly at her. The blonde's eyes focused momentarily and she had enough time to take in the other girl's appearance.

Scrawny and thin, the girl's shirt seemed to drape off of her shoulders. No doubt, the green shirt was a medium anyways. She was wearing black pajama bottoms and slip on Vans. Looking up into her face she noted very pale skin. It looked very soft, or perhaps her vision was beginning to blur over again. Green eyes looked worriedly down at her, lacquered with tears, and pink hair was pulled back in a short and choppy ponytail.

The blonde knew she knew this girl but she couldn't recall who she was. Ino shut her eyes due to the fact that her unfocused vision wasn't helping her confused and disoriented state.

"Please, just hold on for a little longer," the girl with the pink hair whispered before brushing Ino's hair out of her face. She recoiled slightly at the dampness of the girl's hot skin. Ino started at the feeling of Sakura's cold hand on her arm.

"You're so warm," the pink haired girl mumbled before hesitantly pulling Ino into her arms. Ino's body trembled and Sakura struggled to keep the tears from falling from her eyes.

She and Ino used to be the very best of friends. When they were younger, they hung out all the time and Ino was like an older sister, despite the fact that they were pretty much the same age. Once they got to middle school, they began to hang out with different crowds and then, once in high school, Ino drifted away completely.

"I want to die," Ino whispered and Sakura didn't know what to do. Ino's body trembled more and Sakura heard the approaching sirens. The blonde girl in her arms made a frightening noise in her throat and suddenly threw up.

"It'll be ok," Sakura cooed to Ino, who was probably not even paying attention to her. The pink haired girl couldn't disregard the pained look on the blonde's face. "It'll be ok."

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Sakura sat down hesitantly in the silent room in which Ino was staying. The ambulance had rushed the blonde to the hospital, fearing the worst when she vomited more than she could've possibly held within her stomach. They had flushed her intestines and ran numerous tests to examine the damage to her liver. They were thankful, and surprised, to see that Ino would not be requiring a transplant. Her liver was, however, in terrible shape. She would need to be careful now.

The blonde girl was now lying in the hospital bed, sleeping. They wanted to keep her overnight.

Sighing, the girl reclined in the stiff and unsightly mauve recliner that was next to the hospital bed. Her green eyes shifted over to the sleeping form of the girl who tried to throw her life away. Two IVs were attached to her to give her an extra boost; malnutrition had weakened her.

"_Ino Yamanaka_," Sakura thought to herself, "_why did this happen_?"

She frowned, suddenly feeling a bit guilty. It was her who hadn't attempted to revive their friendship. She knew she was hard headed, and she knew trying to be friends with someone who insulted you nearly every day was something that would've been difficult, but she couldn't help but think she could've done something to prevent this from happening. Her ex-best friend had just attempted suicide.

The girl who she used to look up to—the girl who she used to want to be—was now lying inert beneath starched white sheets.

The world had a funny way it functioned; sick and disgusting irony.

Was this what was to be of all the great people of the world, all the great people others envied?

Ino stirred and Sakura started, causing the novel she had brought with her to fall from her lap to the cold tile floor. The smack of the paperback against the tile was enough to cause Sakura to jump again. Glancing over at Ino she bit her lip.

The girl was awake; wide awake.

At first, Sakura said nothing and picked up her book. She then turned to look at Ino, wondering what the hell she was going to say to the girl. Was it alright for her to speak to her? Would Ino flip out that she had thwarted her plan to end her life? Would she question her intentions? Would Ino even speak to her? Still biting her lip she watched as Ino regarded her carefully with tired blue eyes.

"Hey," the blonde spoke casually with a raw and scratchy voice.

"Hey," Sakura replied softly and hesitantly.

Ino chanced a slight and wry smile before shutting her eyes again. She took a deep breath, still breathing awkwardly. She swallowed hard, and then all movement ceased.

Gathering her bravado, Sakura spoke again while brushing some hair that had fallen lose out of her eyes.

"Are you angry with me?"

Ino didn't reply and Sakura sighed. She was tired. She had been there all day and it was late. She wouldn't be able to function properly at school the next day, and she'd need to get her make-up work done. She felt that maybe she should leave. Grabbing her keys off of the small table next to the disgusting looking chair, she stood.

"Yes," Ino said out of nowhere.

"What?" Sakura asked, half wondering what Ino had said and half wondering if she had said anything of importance at all.

"Yes. I'm angry with you," Ino spoke without a tremor in her voice. Sakura felt her old jealousy return. Ino was so strong, no matter what.

"I'm sorry," Sakura said. "I'm sorry you have to go through that kind of stuff and I'm sorry that you feel that you need to kill yourself."

"Why are you here?"

"Are you wishing you'd succeeded?" Sakura asked, wondering and slightly upset. Why would anyone throw away their life like that? There was so much the world could offer—you just had to look in the right places for the right things.

"What the fuck do you want with me?"

Sakura pressed her lips together in silent vexation. Ino was just as annoying as ever.

"Still can't get your head out of your ass, huh Sakura?" Ino accused, sitting up weakly. Sakura had never favored swear words; Ino often thought of her as a prude.

"Shut up," Sakura warned, not wanting her temper to get the better of her.

"_She's injured. She's injured_," she chanted over and over in her head.

"Just get the fuck out of here. I don't know what the fuck you were thinking when you 'saved' me," Ino spat with a tangible disdain. The word "saved" had been said with intense hatred. "You fucking broke into my house anyways."

Sakura finally burst. "Shut up Ino-pig!" the old insult finally resurfaced. "I was doing you a fucking favor. Why would you throw yourself away like that?! I don't give a fuck your parents don't love you, or whatever. I was doing the _right_ thing."

Taking a deep breath, Sakura continued, much calmer, "I just… I didn't want to wake up the next morning to hear that you had died when there was something I could've done to stop you and prevent it. It would've hurt so badly."

"Always a saint," Ino mumbled turning to look at Sakura with wondering blue eyes.

"You look like a zombie," Sakura said with a sarcastic smirk. "Go to sleep."

As Sakura moved towards the door, Ino called out, "Wait."

Sakura stopped, wondering what Ino could possibly want.

"You'll be back, right?" Ino blushed, her pale pasty cheeks gaining a slight tint. Sakura gazed at her with worried and tired green eyes.

"Yeah, tomorrow after swim practice… I'll… call you when I get home though, if that's alright."

Ino, after a long moment, nodded slightly in approval.

"Ok, well don't wait up or anything. It's ok if you don't answer," the pink haired girl said, gesturing to the phone next to the bed.

Ino merely watched her with red rimmed eyes which were quickly filling with tears. Sakura left with a thousand thoughts in her head.

She wondered how Ino had known she had broken into the house. Her father was home; it was a possibility that the man had let her in. Though, Ino must've known that he would just sleep through the doorbell and slamming on the door. He hadn't even woken up when the paramedics had come and when he finally did, he had looked annoyed. His expression was one that said, "You're waking me up for that? Do you think I care?" Sakura frowned. How could someone's parents regard them like that?

She scoffed at her own hypocrisy. Her mother had walked out on her father and her when she was very young. So one half of her parental duo was AWOL, but the chances of _both_ parents not caring were slim to none.

When Sakura arrived at home, she was beyond tired, but she knew she had to call Ino. It was bad to make promises and not keep them and she had no excuse to go back on a promise so simple. When she called the phone rang for a long time, and she wondered if Ino had fallen asleep again. She was just about to hang up when the piercing ring ended and the distinguished sound of the connection met her ears. She waited for a moment, wondering if Ino would speak first until logic caught up with her and she realized that that was probably not going to happen.

"Hello?" Sakura asked into the receiver, softly.

"Hey," Ino said, sounding tired.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" the green eyed girl wondered, biting her lip in worry. If Ino had been asleep, then she should probably go back to sleep, she reasoned. Ino would need her rest.

"Ah, no," the blonde said, sounding like she had more to say, but keeping it to herself.

"Ok, well if you feel tired or anything, you just tell me, and I can talk to you tomorrow."

"I'm tired," Ino said, almost instantaneously. A frown tugged at the corners of Sakura's mouth. No doubt, Ino wouldn't really want to talk to her anyways.

"But… I don't want to be left alone right now," she finished.

"I'm sorry I had to leave," Sakura said, kicking her shoes off as she flopped down onto her twin sized bed.

"I understand," Ino replied.

Silence permeated their conversation and Sakura felt really strange. It was awkward to say the least.

"So… Are you ok talking about this?"

"What?"

"About what happened… about… you."

Sakura bit her lip, tired. Would Ino take offense to that? Did she care even?

"I'm fine. I don't care."

Ino seemed indifferent, but Sakura knew better.

"Are you sure?"

"I said I'm fine," Ino barked, immediately. Sakura cringed. Why had she even suggested this? There was absolutely nothing for them to talk about. Did Ino read? Probably not. Did Ino like professional swimming? Probably not. Hell, they had absolutely nothing in common… Nothing but this awkward moment together.

"Wow, this is awkward," Sakura laughed uncomfortably.

"Sakura, what do you want with me?"

"I don't want anything," the scrawny girl replied, somewhat confused. She figured people just didn't do "good" for good's sake anymore, and she realized it was true. Everyone was looking for some sort of bonus, some sort of added incentive. Even charity was rarely given for charity anymore. This idea hurt Sakura, just a little, and as she thought of it, she yawned.

Ino was silent and Sakura decided to just tell Ino about her day.

"So, I woke up this morning pretty early. I had swim practice at seven. It was fun, like usual." Sakura paused, worried that Ino would perhaps get annoyed with all of her talking. When the hospitalized blonde said nothing, she continued.

"I went home and Naruto tagged along, because he needed a ride. I personally think he still has a crush on me. Actually, I _know_ he still has a crush on me. Hinata likes him a lot though. I've been trying to get them together for the longest time, I should know better though, because I'm obviously not the one to go to for romance help."

"Are you not dating anyone right now?"

"No," Sakura said with a bit of an embarrassed blush.

As Sakura continued to talk about nothing of importance, Ino merely listened, until Sakura got tired and wished her goodnight and hung up. The scrawny pink haired girl felt kind of dumb, thinking she was merely talking to herself when in truth Ino had been listening the whole time.

The next morning, at school, Sakura was what one would call a zombie. After getting off the phone with the blonde, the magnitude of all that had happened really hit her. Ino had tried to take her life. She had tried to kill herself. She really felt as if there was nothing to live for. Sakura, with tears in her eyes and with a heavy heart, couldn't fall asleep. That night, as she tossed and turned in her bed, she vowed to show Ino exactly how beautiful life can be.

Though, as she sat in Physics with a raging headache, a short patience, and no will to keep awake, she was beginning to doubt her own abilities. Would someone as (secretly) cynical as her be able to make the little things in life stand out as beautiful to someone who tried to kill themselves?

* * *

Ino listened quietly, for the fourth night in a row, as Sakura spoke to her tiredly. Part of her wanted to tell the girl to go to sleep, and part of her selfishly wanted to listen to the scrawny girl's voice all night. Sakura had a soothing voice; it had evened out over the years, losing that bratty sound. It was enjoyable, to say the least, and the way she whispered at night made Ino hang on to every word.

The blonde was feeling somewhat selfless and was about to suggest the other girl go to sleep until Sakura stopped talking suddenly. She was in the middle of talking about what happened at lunch with Naruto when she asked, "When are you coming back to school?"

The question had startled Ino, and she considering not answering; just keeping silent like she did all of their conversations. Sakura stopped speaking and the only sound the blonde could hear was her own deep breathing. No doubt the strange girl was very close to sleep, if not already there.

"I don't know," Ino finally decided to reply, wrapping her arm around her side.

"Why not?" Sakura breathed lightly. The blonde girl looked out across her dark room, her eyes taking in all that she could see in the absence of light. Her phone was getting very hot from being in a call for so long. How long had the pink haired girl been talking? Two hours? Three? That didn't make much sense—it didn't seem reasonable.

"I don't know," Ino replied again, softly.

"What? That's stupid Ino Pig," Sakura half laughed. "You can't be that indecisive."

Ino listened to Sakura's laughing and cringed, suppressing a snarky remark. _That_ was the reason why she wouldn't go back to school. She was hyper aware of what people thought of her. She knew how gossip was. No doubt, people were laughing about her and making jokes about her every day. She wasn't the nicest girl at school. No one would really care that she had tried to kill herself… Well, no one except Sakura.

"They'll laugh," she spoke with chapped lips. Sakura's laughter ended immediately. The silence that met her ears was uncomfortable. Ino was contemplating hanging up the phone. Sakura obviously had nothing else to say to her. Perhaps she had caught the scrawny girl in a lie; perhaps Sakura was amongst those at school who laughed at her and made up hurtful jokes she had yet to hear.

"Why should you care about that?" Sakura said, louder than she had been speaking all night. "What others think about you is not important! You have to… You have to take your own advice. Be confident and be yourself."

Ino's ice blue eyes filled with tears. The Sakura of her youth hung on to every word she said, looked up to her as a role model, and still existed within the Sakura who rescued her from death those nights ago.

The Sakura who was aware of her downfall. The Sakura who knew that she had fallen from her pedestal.

Tears fell from Ino's eyes and she hung up the phone without saying a word. She realized now that Sakura was on top of the world—her own world at least. She was doing very well in school, managing to survive happily with only her father and step-family, had excellent friends, and had saved a life. Sakura would always feel good about herself, no matter what.

The blonde was jealous; insanely jealous. Sakura had everything she wanted. She even had a beautiful thin figure, something she had been trying to achieve for the longest time. Her hands fell to her stomach again and she suddenly felt nauseas.

She rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow, fighting the urge to vomit. She decided that she'd go back to school on Monday—there was no use wallowing in her own pain. She'd have to rebuild her life on her own. She'd be the best again, the one everyone envied… or so she hoped.

The next morning, Ino drove to school thinking about how her father really didn't care about enforcing her "groundedness". She hoped to piss him off a little more by taking his nice new Lexus instead of her car, which was as equally nice and expensive, but not as new.

Much to her surprise, the day started without any major incidents. Of course there were a few whispers here and there, and rooms got quiet when she walked in, but she was used to that kind of stuff. Yes, of course it bothered her, but she wasn't going to let that be the only thing in her mind. Right before lunch, she ran into Sakura in the hallway.

"Ino! Good to see you up and about," Sakura smiled at her with pearly white teeth and familiar narrowing eyes. Ino merely stared and marveled at her chipper. Was she not going to ask about being hung up on a couple of nights ago?

"Hi," Ino spoke with a scrutinizing look.

Sakura regarded her with a soft, lopsided smile, and her green eyes seemed to flit over the girl very quickly.

"Where are your books?" Sakura asked, probably because she was going to offer to help carry them. The blonde girl frowned, wondering if she seemed weak on her feet. She sure felt it, and she was sure that she looked paler than ever.

"Ino! Oh my god!" a voice squealed from behind her and the blonde turned around to see two girls that used to follow her around claiming to be her best friends. "We were so worried!"

Ino frowned, looking at them incredulously. No way were they _just now_ talking to her, attempting to act as if they had been good friends.

"When we heard you were in the hospital, we were very worried," the other girl spoke slowly, as if Ino was… not in her right of mind.

Was that a rumor going around? That she was crazy? And of course these stupid bimbos would be the ones to take that to heart.

"Get out of my face," Ino bit out, seemingly calm, but boiling with rage. Sakura nodded at them, advising them, with her eyes, to leave when they had the chance.

"Ino, girl, don't be like that. We're sorry your life sucks so bad," the girl said, trying to seem genuine. Sakura cringed at the poor grammar and Ino's "friends" looked at her with a bit of disgust before looking back at Ino. Little did she know that Ino was just one comment away from blowing her gasket.

"Seriously, I think you guys should leave her alone," Sakura advised gently.

The two girls looked back at Sakura with disdain and turned up their noses.

"Who the fuck is this?" one girl asked, scoffing at Sakura and her somewhat scruffy (in comparison) attire.

"Ew, who do you think you are? Ino's our friend, so back off gold digger," the other huffed.

"Friend?!" the blonde exploded, instantly annoyed. The two girls jumped, startled, and Ino's face flushed with rage.

"Don't you ever let that word come out of your stupid, disgusting, cock sucking mouth in any relation to me," the blonde girl growled stepping forward. "You two are _not_ my friends. Never were, never will be. I'm so sick of fake friends! Sakura is the only one who talked to me at the hospital, or even came to fucking see me. Fuck you and your stupid false friendship! You can take that idea and shove it up your ass! I'm tired of you both."

The girls looked appalled before glancing around at the crowd they had attracted.

"Fine then," one of the two finally said with annoyance. "Be like that. As if we want to be friends with some sort of psychotic, suicidal bitch."

They walked away and Ino huffed, breathing heavily in anger. Sakura looked concerned and took a step towards the blonde.

"Are you ok?" she asked and Ino suddenly felt ridiculously tired and her eyes lost focus for a few moments. Soon, her legs felt very weak and she passed out.

The blonde girl awakened to the sight of a white, tiled ceiling. She remembered learning somewhere that the ceiling tiles were made of plaster and gypsum. Something absolutely unimportant to know, but it caused her some sort of strange comfort.

She sighed, tiredly and rolled her head to the side. She saw, once again, that she was connected to an IV. The needle was lost to her sight, beneath her skin, at the junction of her arm. With a frown she rolled her head to look at the other side of the room only to see familiar green eyes gazing at her with worry, concern and caring.

There was only one person who ever looked at her that way anymore and Ino suddenly felt overwhelmed.

"Have you been eating?" the pink haired girl inquired, gently resting her hand on Ino's bed.

The blonde didn't reply, feeling ashamed in a way. It was obvious she was disappointing Sakura, yet why should she care that she was? Why? Because Sakura was the only one who looked at her in _that_ way; as a person who was deserving of human care.

"The nurse says you're malnourished," Sakura tried again, seeming a bit defeated. "Have you been eating?" she asked again.

Ino couldn't bring herself to answer. Tears filled her eyes and she looked away from Sakura. The pink haired girl sighed, seemingly losing patience with the girl she saved from death.

"Why would you do this to yourself? I don't understand…"

"I'm sorry," Ino finally said, not even attempting to hide the tears in her sky blue eyes.

"No you're not," Sakura said in a very disappointed way. "If you were, you'd try to help yourself."

The pink haired girl left, and Ino cried silently to herself. Sakura didn't come see her the next day, or even the next. Ino laid in bed, refusing to eat much (how would she, the food tasted like paper) and obnoxiously requesting a cigarette every time a nurse came to talk to her.

She soon found that her father requested to have her receive counseling. Ino laughed at that, finding it hard to believe her father would do anything for her wellbeing. It was merely a ploy to have her well again so that his business partners could stop worrying about his personal life. Like hell she'd go to counseling. She knew she had a problem. Smoking and anorexia were just the results of that problem. What to do about her image problem and lack of self confidence? She would always be dissatisfied with her body; that was just her personal vision of aesthetics. What was wrong with her wanting to better herself?

Was nothing she did ever good enough? The persistent whispers of _escape_ flitted about her head; they had only been getting stronger and stronger these past few days. She could only ignore the temptation for so long.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews and feedback. I suppose I'll continue this story :) Your opinions are very highly regarded! I'm busy busy busy with senior year (college apps., scholarships, etc.) but I'm trying to make time to write.**

**Thank you for reading; please review  
-E.E**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated copyrighted property. All I own is my imagination and therefore, this plot.  
Rating: Mature for language, drug usage, sexual references, and lesbianism (because apparantly, that's only for mature audiences).**

* * *

_"It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart."-Anonymous_

**  
Chapter 3**

The pink haired girl watched the blonde sleep absently. Her mind was on three days ago when she left her here. She was disappointed in herself for that—for getting so impatient. Old habits die hard, they say.

But she really did feel bad about how she handled it. Ino was… Ino needed to be dealt with in a peculiar way, and that was not with impatience. The blonde seemed to not want to talk about anything, and that was ok. She had a right to do so. Sakura was just disappointed that she wasn't eating, but what else was there to expect? As if one attempt at suicide would turn the girl around completely. She'd have to be patient and help her through her problems… How was she supposed to do that though? How was she supposed to make Ino appreciate herself?

When Ino woke up, the two didn't exchange words. The blonde girl seemed ashamed with herself and refused to even look at Sakura, and when their eyes did meet tears filled Ino's. Sakura felt bad, but didn't know what to say. So she sat there, doing her homework, in Ino's presence.

The nurse came in and was surprised to see Sakura there. The girl smiled at her and then looked back down at her text book. Cosmology and relativity were interesting, yet boring at the same time. She heard a bit of shuffling and then a somewhat one sided conversation began.

"Ino, are you going to attend your counseling session?"

The blonde was silent and Sakura looked up, interested. She hadn't known that Ino was getting counseling.

"You want me to walk halfway around this fucking hospital with my fat ass hanging out the back of this stupid gown just to talk to some loser about problems that he has no power over?" Ino barked suddenly. "Fuck you."

The nurse looked disgruntled and pursed her lips.

"Have it your way then. I'll have you know your father is paying for the sessions you have failed to attend and continue to fail to attend."

"I don't fucking care."

The nurse merely shook her head and left the room.

Despite the fact that Ino had been ridiculously rude to the woman, Sakura was somewhat impressed with her thought process. She had acknowledged that she had a problem. And she'd acknowledged that she was the only one who could help herself. Yet she refused to do so… Why?

Their eyes met and hurt swirled in glacier ice blue.

"I'm sorry about how I acted," Sakura apologized and Ino said nothing. She hardly ever did. She merely nodded and turned on her side to sleep.

For a couple of days, that's how it was when Sakura visited Ino at the hospital. The blonde girl would lie there quietly while the green eyed girl would do her homework. Conversation was scarce and it was always awkward when nurses came in to check on Ino. She'd either cuss them out or cause trouble.

One afternoon, Ino seemed very talkative. Or… as talkative as she got around Sakura.

"I don't want to be here anymore," she mumbled, looking out of the window. The sun was setting and the sky became a palette of warm oranges, reds, pinks, and purples. Sakura watched as the blinds cast a striated pattern across the resting blonde. Her hair caught the light, darkening to a warm gold instead of a pale blonde and her eyes darkened substantially as well into an abyssal cobalt ocean trench. Sakura thought Ino was beautiful—she had always been envious of the girl's beauty.

"I'm not sure when they'll release you… I suppose when you begin making progress with your eating habits," she added hesitantly watching as the blonde eyed her suspiciously.

"What are you getting from this?"

"What?"

"How does being here benefit you?" Ino asked, her eyebrows furrowing deeply. Sakura couldn't ignore the deep bags beneath her eyes and her weak look. The blonde gave a good impression of strength, but when one really looked closely, it was easy to see how delicate she really was.

"Well, I get a nice, quiet place to do my homework. My stepmom's kids are a bit… obstreperous."

Ino was quiet and Sakura only continued, hoping that she'd say something that would engage the other girl.

"I'm also getting to know you again."

Ino looked confused and Sakura smiled, glad that she'd silently requested an explanation.

"Well, you're a really good listener, you enjoy watching clouds a lot, you're somewhat addicted to nicotine, and you hate tasteless food more than anything else. You also like rock music and are uber suspicious of just about everything."

Looking down at her chart she continued, "I also know your full name, your height, you blood type and—"

The blonde girl suddenly began laughing and Sakura couldn't help but smile. She hadn't heard Ino's laugh in a very long time. It sounded tired and lethargic, but it was a laugh and that was all that mattered to her. Sakura had to admit that the blonde seemed much pleasanter when her face was alive with laughter.

She looked back down at her notes, this time she was studying English. Ino soon fell asleep and the pink haired girl was contemplating heading home. She glanced back at the chart on Ino's bed and frowned when she saw her friend's weight. Ino was taller than her and weighed an alarming amount less. The blonde was wasting away by her own hands and Sakura felt as if there was nothing she could do.

She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and stepped out into the hallway to answer.

"Hello," she said, somewhat subdued.

"Hi Sakura; is everything alright?"

It was her father and the pink haired girl sighed.

"I guess… Ino's beginning to look like a lost cause. That's all," she bit her lip and then wet her lips.

"Oh, come on now, you just have to have a little patience, ok?"

"Alright; I'm just beginning to wonder what I can do for her exactly. It's not even about her being suicidal anymore. It's about her self confidence and I really can't influence that in any way."

"Hmm," her father paused. "Well I'm sure you'll think of a way."

"I guess," Sakura sighed.

* * *

As Ino watched Sakura exit the room to answer the phone, she fell prey to her frantic thoughts. She had all but forgotten of her suspicion of Sakura while she was talking to her. When she had asked Sakura what she was gaining from staying with her, the pink haired girl's answer threw her for a loop. Then again, Sakura was just kind hearted that way. As if she would use her for popularity or money—she was too good for that.

Ino was also concerned with this strange admiration growing in her heart for the girl who had been coming to see her so often. The blonde girl felt some sort of comfort in the girl who saved her life… It was a sense of being, a sense of being needed and wanted; something she wasn't very familiar with. And it was that sense of caring and concern that radiated from the green eyed girl that made her feel this attachment to Sakura. She knew, the moment those brilliant green eyes fell on her the first day back in the hospital after school, that she never wanted to leave Sakura's sight.

The pink haired girl returned after a little while and resumed her semi-vigilant post in her chair next to Ino's bed. Sakura sent Ino a smile, but the blonde didn't return it. With a strange look in her green eyes, she resumed her work.

Nearly an hour passed and Ino felt worried that perhaps Sakura was upset. The other girl hadn't even glanced up at her once, as she watched her do her work.

"I've learned a bit about you too," Ino tried, feeling awkwardly little and unimportant. Her voice felt weak to her.

"Is that so?" Sakura said, finishing a sentence before looking up at the blonde.

"Yeah," Ino said, offering a shy smile before looking away from Sakura's eyes. "You're ridiculously selfless… Unreasonably studious, not to mention smart. You're a swimmer, and you live with your dad and step family. You've also got a great figure…"

"Oh, you flatter me," Sakura blushed in embarrassment. Her figure was one she never celebrated. If shapeless and scrawny were things Ino thought described a good figure… It was then it hit her.

"You can have a great figure too," Sakura said, watching Ino's blue eyes fill with confusion. "If you eat a bit more."

Ino merely scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Really Ino," Sakura said.

"I know what this is," Ino snapped. "Fuck that."

Sakura took a deep breath and counted to 5 in her head, to keep her anger in check. The last thing she wanted to do was douse Ino in a flood of disappointment and shouting. She didn't need that; Ino needed to be handled gently.

Just as Sakura was about to say something, a nurse brought in Ino's dinner with a big fake smile plastered on her face. Sakura looked back down at her physics textbook, away from the pale blonde who was scowling at the nurse who came in.

"What the fuck is that supposed to be?" Ino said, sounding a bit sick.

Sakura looked up to see the nurse had left and that Ino had uncovered her plate. There was a medium sized, wet looking, pale white chicken breast sitting on the plate surrounded by mashed potatoes and what looked to be highlighter yellow corn. An assortment of what she assumed to be vitamins sat in a small plastic cup next to the plate.

The green eyed girl couldn't hide her appalled look and the two made eye contact. Once again, they began laughing.

"What the fuck kind of radioactive shit is this?" Ino complained, flicking the neon corn off of her plate onto the ground.

"I would advise you, only this once, not to eat that corn. I think the mashed potatoes look legit though."

"Who said I was eating this anyways?" Ino huffed, crossing her arms across her chest and looking out at the dusky sky.

"I said," Sakura said, packing her things up.

"Wait, don't leave… I'll eat it," Ino started, looking apprehensive, but scooping up quite a bit of the potatoes.

"Well that's good," Sakura smiled brightly, "but I have to leave anyways. I promised my dad I'd be home before seven, plus I'm pretty hungry myself. I'll call you when I get home so you can tell me how delicious everything is."

Embarrassment filled Ino at her display of her desperation of Sakura's presence. A blush painted her cheeks a light pink and she watched as Sakura slung her backpack over her shoulder and left the room, not waiting for Ino to say goodbye, because she never did. Moments after the door shut, Ino mumbled a farewell and forced herself to shove the spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth.

The next day, Sakura couldn't come to see her because of a swim meet, but she did call late at night. Ino was quieter than usual, and the pink haired girl was somewhat worried about that. She promised the blonde she'd see her the following day.

When Sakura walked in, Ino could help the smile that spread on her lips.

"Miss me?" the pink haired girl smirked.

Ino rolled her eyes and said nothing.

"How was lunch today?" Sakura provoked, smiling at the idea of the gross looking food.

"The shitty food, I can handle. The not being able to smoke… well, it's driving me insane."

"Hmm, well I don't approve of the use of tobacco products, but you do know that once you get out of here you can smoke again. The only way to get out of here is to get healthy again."

Ino sighed, tired of everyone telling her what she needed to do. She knew what she needed to do, but she didn't want to do it. Weren't they worried about what she wanted? She knew that if she did eat more, she'll only be discharged to start doing what she was doing before, again. Did she have the willpower to not fall prey to her folly?

"I'm not saying that just to be annoying… I just really care about your wellbeing and I want you to get out of here to you can live your life again."

"What life, Sakura? My dad couldn't give six shits about me, Sasuke doesn't fucking care, and my fake ass friends couldn't be any faker. What life?"

Sakura regarded Ino carefully, taking in the flushed nature of her cheeks and the liveliness of her icy blue eyes. And with that sentence, she knew it would be a matter of time that her friend would be discharged. She wanted to make sure that she would be discharged with a healthy mind and a positive attitude.

"What if I promise you things will change?" the pink haired girl tried with her green eyes never straying away from the eyes of her friend.

Ino gave her a skeptical look and huffed, angrily, "Fuck off; who do you think you are? God?"

Sakura gave a wry smile and left the room, not really in the mood to play optimistic friend of the day. The swim meet had been tough, and practice even tougher. Not to mention the stress of school and assignments looming about. She didn't need to put up with this. Ino didn't appreciate her at all.

Or so she thought.

The moment Sakura left, Ino broke down into hopeless tears. She promised herself she would get better, for her pink haired friend; for her to feel useful again.

Sakura didn't visit her for two days, and the following day, after forcing herself to eat every last bit of each disgusting meal the hospital placed before her, she was released to go home.

Ino arrived home to an empty house, but she preferred it that way. Her dad was no doubt off on a business trip, not that she cared. She didn't really feel like communicating with anyone, though she rarely communicated with her father. When she got up to her room she flopped down on the soft queen-sized bed, tiredly wishing that Sakura would visit her. She lay there, smoking, and then put out the cigarette when she felt she could no longer keep her eyes open.

Her dreams were strange and inconsistent, void and lonely, cold and depressing. She awoke with an empty feeling and tears on her cheeks. Suddenly, she missed the medication from the hospital; the ones that made her feel warm and bubbly. She also missed Sakura—Sakura made her feel warm and bubbly.

The next day Ino found herself lying on her bed watching the sun rise and slowly illuminate the earth with its warm glow. It chased the darkness away, aiding only to brighten everything it could touch. It, unfortunately, could barely touch Ino and its warmth was unknown to her.

That same day, Ino found herself lying on her bed watching the sunset.

She felt uneasy and sick, but she didn't think it was from not eating.

* * *

Sakura had a right to be worried about Ino, after going to the hospital to only find she had been discharged a couple of days before. She had a right to be worried after relentlessly calling Ino's cell phone and house phone and not getting a reply. Therefore, she had a right to break into Ino's house once again; it was only justified. She had spent a long while at the front door, contemplating if it was ok to do so, but her worry won out and she skillfully broke into the upper class home.

She was glad, and upset, that she did. The pink haired girl found Ino lying on the ground in her room, shivering and crying. She looked pale and sickly, and Sakura wondered what would've happened to her had she not been concerned. She then realized that Ino had been justified in her morose outlook on life—Ino really didn't have anyone that actually cared for her.

Sakura cared for her, however, and she couldn't help the tears as she knelt down next to her friend.

"You're so fucking good at breaking in," Ino attempted to laugh.

"Ino… now's not the time for jokes," Sakura said with quivering lips. She gently ran her hand through slightly greasy blonde hair; she knew the blonde had been failing to take care of herself as she thought back to how Ino's hair used to be the envy of the school—long, blonde, and beautiful. Wiping away some tears she pulled her hand away after snagging a tangle.

"You're coming with me; this isn't right," Sakura said, with her voice breaking with emotion. She helped Ino up with minimal difficulty for she was much stronger than she looked. The two made their way downstairs and Sakura helped Ino into her van.

Ino was absently marveling at how disgusting Sakura's vehicle was. It was an old red Astro van, rusting all over, and it smelled of dust, dead insects, and gasoline. She mused on her life of luxury vehicles and realized she had never ridden in something so nasty before in her life. She suddenly felt sick and began to dry heave, startling the driver.

When they arrived at the Haruno household and entered inside, Mr. Haruno was very concerned at the sight he saw. He had known Ino previously, when she and Sakura had been best friends when they were younger. Never would he have guessed that the young, lively little girl he had seen would grow up to be sickly, thin, and pale. He was very concerned and was wracking his brain on what to do.

"Dad, I… I'm sorry; I didn't know what else to do, so I brought her here," Sakura said with a tight voice betraying her emotional strength.

"It's fine," he said, looking worried. "I'll help you take her upstairs."

Sakura looked towards the stairs to see her younger stepbrothers and stepsister watching in awe from the staircase. She glared at them, embarrassed for Ino and her weak appearance. She'd have to warn them to leave the girl be when they were around.

Mr. Haruno, hardened and strong from manual labor assisted Sakura in taking Ino into her bedroom. Sakura damned herself for not tidying up before she left, like she had planned. Yet, as she thought of that, she realized Ino would've been lying there on her own for that little bit much longer. She decided that having a semi-dirty room was better than someone lying on the ground, alone and sick, for any amount longer than they needed.

The pink haired girl shoved some clothes and books off of her bed and made room for Ino. Mr. Haruno, after setting Ino down, took a glance around the room with warm green eyes. He then looked at Sakura and gently tugged at his slight, dirty blonde facial hair.

"How about you go make her some soup or something—the room can wait. I'll wait up here with her."

"Ok," Sakura said with her mind elsewhere. Once downstairs, she absently went through the motions of preparing soup for Ino. She knew she could make whatever she wanted to make for her sick friend, but soup was what her father mentioned and soup was the quickest thing she could make aside from a sandwich she was sure Ino wouldn't eat. Once it was done, she turned off the stove, poured some into a bowl, and grabbed a piece of garlic bread from the table that was leftover from dinner that her step-mom had made.

Sakura pushed through the small crowd of children gathered at her door and stepped in to find her father morosely gazing at Ino who had fallen asleep in her bed. She set the bowl and the napkin clad piece of bread down on her bedside table and took a seat on the edge of her bed.

"I'll come check on you two later tonight," Mr. Haruno said gently, giving Sakura a fatherly rub on the back for support.

He ushered the children away from the door on his way out and shut it. Sakura soaked up the sound of silence, acknowledging the fact that just because Ino was no longer lying on the ground, she was still in no better state than from when she found her.

"Ino," Sakura whispered, gently shaking her friend's thin shoulder.

The pink haired girl watched as Ino stirred, her lips falling open just slightly as she took a deep breath. Ice blue eyes were revealed to her and she marveled at how light the color seemed at the moment—there was almost a silver tint to the blue.

"I made you some soup… I'll have you know that my cooking is a thousand times better than what you had at the hospital, and it'd hurt my feelings if you didn't even try it."

"If I told you I felt nauseous, would you still make me have it?"

"Yes." Sakura said, unwaveringly.

Ino sighed a tired drawn out sigh and attempted to prop herself up. Sakura reached forward to help the girl up. Ino shivered at the warm touch of Sakura's hands. She realized the green eyed girl had long, thin fingers… she wondered if those were good for swimming. Perhaps Sakura was a musician as well.

"Ino?" Sakura mumbled, concerned about how unfocused the girl seemed. Blue eyes turned towards her and held her gaze for a few moments before floating off to observe other things.

"Your house is disgusting," Ino finally said, quite rudely as well.

Sakura took a deep breath, attempting to not let the insult to her home be taken personally.

"Not to mention tiny," the blonde mumbled. "How the fuck do you all live here?"

"Shut the fuck up; eat this fucking soup and quit being such a bitch!"

Sakura suddenly blanched at her outburst, breaking her promise to herself that she wouldn't blow up at Ino ever again.

The blonde's eyes merely widened and she took the bowl into her shaky hands. After a tentative sip she took a couple more spoonfuls before setting the bowl down.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked, concerned and a bit impatient with how slow Ino had been eating. She was feeling quite hungry herself, but refused to go downstairs and prepare herself a meal until Ino had eaten at least half of the soup.

"I feel sick," Ino mumbled, gagging a bit.

Sakura shot up, tripped over a misplaced shoe on the ground, and then scrambled over to get her small yellow trash bin. She made it back just in time to have Ino vomit into it.

"I'm sorry," the blonde muttered. "It's not the soup. It's fine really."

Sakura sighed and stood up after assuring herself that the trash bin was in Ino's hands securely.

"I'll go get you some ginger ale."

* * *

**A/N: Once again, thank you so much for the reviews. That's the best motivation I can ever have; and I apologize for the lateness of this chapter. My classes are trying to kick my butt. However, they shall fail. **

**I'll update within the next week! Please review and thanks a bunch!**

**-E.E.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated copyrighted property. All I own is my imagination and therefore, this plot.  
Rating: Mature for language, drug usage, sexual references, and lesbianism (because apparantly, that's only for mature audiences).**

* * *

_"The perception of beauty is a moral test." -Henry David Thoreau_

**Chapter 4**

Sakura smiled at Ino who made her way downstairs to eat with her, Mr. Haruno, and her stepmom. Things were certainly looking better for the blonde girl. It had only been a week, but at least Ino was getting around on her own without looking so weak. She had certainly been eating more and more and she was spending less time sleeping. She often just observed the activities going on in the house; Sakura reading, Mr. Haruno mowing the lawn, the kids running around if they were at the house, Shizune (as Sakura called her) coming home late from her work at the hospital, Sakura and her father kicking around a soccer ball in the back yard…

Ino had, as she watched these things, begun to realize that there was a lot she didn't have. She had missed out on so many things—her family wasn't really a family. It was a disgrace to families; a giant blunder and she began to despise the mere idea of the Yamanaka household. Her house was cold and empty, and the fact that it was so huge didn't help with those factors at all.

The Haruno household was… small, yes, and slightly dirty in a way that is expected of a house that was over 10 years old, but it was warm and populated. Filled with people who loved one another, and yes, sometimes when Konohamaru pissed on the toilet seat and didn't clean it up, Sakura went on rampage, but it was a home. Ino could feel it in her. Even when Udon and Moegi, the other stepsiblings of Sakura, decide to run around the house producing a ridiculous amount of noise when Mr. Haruno was sleeping, it was comfortable.

This was what Ino wanted. She'd always wanted it, even as a child. She knew that her parents weren't going to last, even at a young age. They never came to school functions and if parents were required to show up for a parent-teacher conference, only her mother would come, feigning interest. And it used to cut her deep when she'd walk up on stage during the awards ceremonies held during school and find that her parents weren't there, smiling at her with pride like the other students' parents were.

"Ino?"

Sakura's concerned voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she realized she must've been standing on the last step for a long while. Green eyes watched her with concern and Ino decided to turn her gaze away; her eyes wouldn't lie for her.

"Good morning," the blonde said softly, taking a seat beside Sakura and across from Konohamaru who was devouring his cereal at an unreasonable speed with an angry look in his eye. Well, Ino corrected that thought, because she had to quickly learn that Konohamaru's eyes were just very small and he always looked angry.

She looked to her left to see Udon and Moegi watching TV silently with one another. She was surprised that the two agreed on the show, but once seeing it was something educational, she wasn't so surprised. Udon was an absolute math nerd, and Moegi happened to find anything educational interesting just because Sakura found it interesting. The young girl idolized Sakura in a way that Ino thought was unhealthy, but it kind of reminded the blonde of the times that Sakura looked up to her in the same way.

Ino glanced to her left to see that Sakura was watching her intently with a worried look in her eyes. The blue eyed girl blushed and put a small amount on her plate. She was still unable to eat large rations without feeling sick, but she was trying her best.

It didn't take Ino long to eat the two pieces of bacon, the small ration of scrambled eggs, and the piece of toast. Sakura was taking her home to get more of her things—she certainly enjoyed letting Ino wear her clothes, but Ino wasn't the happiest person in them at all. Ino was no longer verbally rude, but Sakura could see in her eyes her disgust while having to wear the pink-haired girl's clothing.

"Are you ready to go?" Sakura asked as Ino set her plate down in the sink. The blonde looked over at her silently and briefly before looking away and nodding. She followed Sakura out into the driveway where her large unsightly van was parked. The ride to her house was quiet and comfortable. Ino spent her time gazing out of the window of the van, trying her best to ignore the turbulence of the vehicle.

When Sakura pulled into the driveway, it took a few minutes to realize something just wasn't right with Ino. It was the pallor of her face that alerted her and then when Ino looked like a cornered animal prepared to run she quickly seized the girl in a tight embrace. The blonde girl did put up a slight struggle, but compared to Sakura she stood no chance.

"Fuck!" Ino screamed madly.

"Ino, calm down," Sakura ordered sternly, tightening her hold on the other girl. Suddenly Ino slumped against her and began to sob. The green eyed girl was concerned and confused—what was going on? Why was Ino so emotional all of a sudden? Why was she pale and angry and crying…? She hated when she cried.

"Ino?"

In sniffled, gagging on her tears, "How long do you think he's been home?"

It was then Sakura realized that the open garage revealed not only Ino's Ferrari, but her father's BMW. And knowing she couldn't say anything to comfort the girl she hugged her close and rested her cheek against the blonde girl's head.

"Come on… this isn't you Ino. Since when did you become such a crybaby? When did you just begin to roll over and take shit from people?"

Ino sighed, wiping at her cheeks in embarrassment. She realized that cried in front of Sakura a lot; it was like Sakura was always there when she fell prey to her emotions and broke down in teenage weakness. But it was ok for her to cry, right? She had just left an environment filled with love and family connection only to come home to find that her father was home and that he hadn't even been concerned enough to worry about her wellbeing or location.

But after thinking that, she refused to cry any longer. She tilted her head a little, realizing she was becoming a bit too comfortable in Sakura's awkward embrace.

"Sakura, as much as I like you hanging all over me…"

"Oh, sorry," the pinkette replied with a blush on her cheeks as she quickly released the blonde.

"Anyways, thank you. You're right," Ino mumbled before heading off towards the house. Sakura followed Ino into her room, still working on wiping the blush from her warm cheeks. The blonde didn't seem fazed at all by the room, but Sakura entered the room only having bad memories of it bombard her mind from every possible direction. Bad memories of finding Ino at death's door, stomach full of medication, dying slowly and painfully… and of finding Ino lying on the ground, delirious and weak.

She barely registered that the blonde girl had handed her a bag and asked to her just fill it with the random clothes she found in the drawers. The green eyed girl did so absently, lost in her thoughts and worries until an unexpected visitor appeared in the doorway; until then, she hadn't realize she had been elbow-deep in the girl's colorful underwear. Sakura had never seen so many thongs in one place, ever. Not even at the stores; then again, she never did look around stores for thongs.

"I thought I heard something in here," Mr. Yamanaka said in a stern voice. Ino merely glanced up with fire burning in her sky blue eyes, and she did so very briefly before looking back down at the clothes she was packing.

"Where are you going?" he asked stepping into the room. Sakura cringed at the scent of cigarettes that he seemed to exude.

"What do you care?" Ino bristled, and Sakura could see how close to losing it Ino was.

"I don't have to fucking care about you. I just need to know where you are sometimes; Mr. Uchiha isn't very happy that you and Sasuke have broken up." Sakura was momentarily appalled that the man had spoken that way to his daughter.

"You know what?" Ino said, dropping the bag onto the bed. "Fuck you. And fuck Sasuke too. Do you think I care about what your stupid business partner says? I couldn't care less. So I'm leaving to go stay with some people who seem to care about me more than my own sack-less dad could ever care."

Sakura's green eyes frantically turned to Mr. Yamanaka after Ino stopped talking… yelling. Hell, she didn't really know what to call it—it certainly wasn't loud, but neither was it smooth, calm, or gentle.

"You're right; I don't care. I could care less too, so why don't you just fucking tell me who you're going to be staying with so I don't have to cause a scene here in front of your little friend."

Sakura raised her eyebrows, having already labeled the yelling fest a scene.

"She's staying with my family and I, sir," Sakura decided to take the matters into her own hands.

"And you are?" he asked, taking out a small black electronic palm planner from his pocket.

"Sakura Haruno, sir," she replied politely with a blinding smile. He quickly typed in the name and added a note to find the girl's information later.

"Thank you; I'll be sending you a check each month for taking Ino in. The first check with also cover this past week you've had Ino staying with you."

Sakura was about to protest but the man merely turned away and headed towards the door.

"What a polite girl, that Sakina. Ino, why can't you be more like your friend? Stupid slut."

And he was gone.

Ino rolled her eyes and then chuckled, "Sakina."

That was what was said last between the girls before they left. Ino insisted in driving her car back to Sakura's house, and the pink haired girl allowed her to do so. Once they got there, Sakura assisted in lugging all of Ino's things into her room. Sakura had been sleeping in a sleeping bag since Ino had begun to stay with them. Sharing a room with the girl had proven to be quite the difficult task, but it allowed her to keep a close eye on the girl during the night—the best time for her to do something strange like binge on medication or vomit in the bathroom.

After silently organizing everything in an orderly fashion Sakura spoke, "I want to go to the park."

"Why?" Ino asked, looking quite tired and a bit unhappy… She always had a gloomy look on her face, however, and that was all Sakura had known on her since they were reunited those weeks ago.

"I just want to get some fresh air… are you going to come with me?"

"Sure," the blonde said. "But I'm driving."

* * *

The sun was high and blinding, but the girls managed to seek refuge underneath trees with tightly entangling branches right next to the rushing river. The sound of running water always seemed to calm Sakura, and she figured Ino would enjoy it as well. She had miscalculated her estimation of the number of mosquitoes that would be there to ruin their outing, but Ino didn't seem to want to verbally complain about them. There was merely a deep furrow in her eyebrows as she watched the natural force rush past her.

"Have you ever thought of jumping in?" Ino asked randomly, playing with a bit of blonde hair.

Sakura made a face, and then gave a slight laugh.

"Well, of course. We swimmers think about jumping into rivers all the time," the girl explained, wondering if she'd be able to tangent her answer enough to distract Ino from suicidal thoughts. "I've actually done it before, when it was still summer and it was uber hot. The water was so cold and refreshing… Why do you ask?"

"You know… my mom didn't want to keep me when she found out she was pregnant. She was 100% sure she wanted an abortion. My grandparents saved me… I, um," she cleared her throat and began to make a pile of freshly fallen leaves beside her sitting form. Her chin rested on her knees and she had one arm wrapped around her tucked legs.

"I've never really felt any need to be here… alive. I've always felt that life was just something to do, until you die. I've never felt there was a reason to live or there was much to accomplish."

Tilting her head so her cheek was resting on her knee she looked up at Sakura in a shy manner. Ino's piercing blue eyes shot straight through Sakura's, intruding into the deepest parts of her heart. The green eyed girl struggled with her will, fighting to keep herself staring right into the blonde's soul as long as she could; she wouldn't lose this fight. Ino was finally talking to her. _This_ was it.

"And so, I see you now, and I see what you want to be. When I see your family, I hurt so badly inside. You have what I don't, and I'm jealous." The blonde's eyebrows furrowed even deeper if that were possible, before she continued speaking.

"I'm not who I used to be, Sakura. I'm not young and foolishly ambitious. I know what pain is and I'm no longer ignorant. I need to know what you want to gain from this. I need to know now, before I let myself hurt again."

Sakura regarded the girl's quickly dampening blue eyes.

"What I want, huh?" Sakura mused, somewhat playfully. Ino gave a decisive nod and Sakura smiled brightly.

"I want you to know that my family is your family. We're technically sisters now, ok? So you can just forget about whatever… wait, no; don't forget. Our hardships make us strong. You remember, and you learn from it, and you look at what you've just gained and you love it for all that it's worth to you. I want you to promise me this is what you'll do; you owe me that little bit, ok?"

Ino's face tensed into a pathetic expression and she struggled to keep back her tears and set her jaw.

"I never used to cry so much," Ino mumbled, looking upwards into the sieve of yellowing leaves to keep her cheeks dry. "But yeah… I promise."

Sakura smiled smugly and caught Ino's eye, "Look, I'm not here to take advantage of you when you're down, or whatever. So we can sit here silently from now on, you don't have to talk about anything. It's ok."

It's ok.

Those words settled in Ino's mind and she wrapped both arms around her legs, resting her forehead against her knees. The only sounds that were left to hear were the rushing water and the wildlife in the trees. Sakura watched Ino, worried that the girl was much more unstable than she thought. Turning green eyes away from her friend, she watched as a couple walked through the park to settled at a part of the river that was rocky enough and shallow enough for them to get their feet wet.

The girl was somewhat thankful for this development of Ino's troubles; not because Ino was struggling with life, but for the fact that worrying about Ino had allowed her to forget her own troubles for a moment. In comparison, her problems seemed so small.

* * *

"You don't understand how close I am to kicking you off the team," her coach sighed in disappointment. Sakura shifted on her feet, feeling worry fill the pit of her stomach. No way could she be kicked off of the swim team just because she missed a couple of practices! She had a legitimate reason!

"But Kakashi, I have a good reason…"

"I know, I know—Yamanaka—but she isn't your responsibility," the man said, glancing past her to give a brief glare to the blonde who was sitting silently on the bleachers doing school work—she was working hard on catching up. Sakura was surprised to learn that Ino was actually really smart. She had expected Ino to not be the brightest sun in the sky because she fit into the prep stereotype and a girl with "hobbies" like hers didn't seem the type to have any time for academics, but Ino had proven her wrong after a few moments of helping her study for her Physics test one night. And then again for a US History test. And once again for a Statistics test.

"She _is_ my responsibility," Sakura said in a defensive tone. "Ino's like a sister to me, and you don't understand how it affects the family when something's not ok with her. She needs help and attention and I give that to her because she's comfortable with me and only me; I need to be there for her sometimes, ok? And if you don't understand that, then I quit. I wouldn't want to swim with you if you were waving a big fat college scholarship in my face."

Sakura turned on heel, irate and annoyed. Didn't he understand that she just couldn't make practice every day?

"Sakura, wait," he called out, catching up to her. The pink haired girl couldn't help the blush that painted her cheeks as he caught a hold of her hand. "Look… I'll make an exception, but only because you work so hard for this team. I can't allow you to be captain, however, since you miss so much practice nowadays."

Sighing, Sakura considered the proposition, and nodded carefully. It was only fair that she was stripped of her title.

"Good," he said with a smile. "Go ahead and do a few laps to warm up."

Sakura quickly walked away from her coach. She had had the biggest crush on him since she had first joined the team her freshman year—of course, he was way too old for her, but he was just young enough to be considered extremely hot eye candy, and she loved the fact that he got into the pool with them to coach.

They spent time doing practice laps and playing pool games. Everyone had questions about Ino whenever there was a moment to speak. Sakura was willing to tell them whatever was appropriate to share. The girl was surprised to find that Naruto, of all people, was one of the most concerned. She would've figured the boy would've been mad because Ino was who Sakura was spending time with, and he hardly got to see the girl outside of school. That, and Naruto's mind worked in a child-like way, and it was only expected the boy's jealousy would be very strong.

Sakura found herself and Naruto to be the last ones to exit the pool.

"Naruto," the girl said, grabbing her towel, "it just occurred to me that since you were co-captain, you're bound to be moved up to captain."

"I was thinking about that," the blonde boy said, drying his face with his towel. "I don't know whether or not to be happy that I'm getting the position, or sad that you're losing yours over something like this."

"It's alright Naruto," Sakura smiled, watching is deep blue eyes narrow as he furrowed his eyebrows.

"No, it's not alright. It's wrong," he huffed, tossing the towel down on the bench.

"It is alright, because you'll make a fantastic captain," the green eyed girl said with a somewhat forced smile. He looked at her, futilely trying to hold onto his remorse of Sakura's loss of title and power. A hesitant smile broke out onto his lips, and Sakura admired how he seemed to look older and older every day. He was getting so handsome, not to mention how he was in perfect shape.

"Heck yeah I will," he said with a wide smile.

The pink haired girl smiled and rolled her eyes, and removed her goggles from her head to prepare to go take a shower.

"Hey, Sakura," Naruto said in a shy manner. She looked up to find his cheeks blazing red. "Are you going to be doing anything tomorrow night?"

Sakura blushed, flattered that he was asking her out… again… but she had promised herself that she wouldn't be doing anything with friends unless she could bring Ino along, and she figured that Naruto wanted an intimate outing, and a party of three was just one too many.

"I'm sorry," the green eyed girl said with a blush, averting her gaze. "I'd really love to, but I can't just leave Ino alone by herself."

"She could come too," he tried, looking a bit hopeless. "We could go watch a movie or we could just chill at my house."

"Naruto, I'm really sorry," she said again, feeling disappointed that she disappointed him.

"Oh, I guess it's alright," he sighed in a down hearted nature.

He reached up and touched her cheek with his water softened hand.

"I'll see you later."

As he disappeared into the men's dressing room, she felt her heart flutter, just a bit. What was wrong with her? She obviously felt some sort of attraction to the boy; so what was stopping her from just saying yes?

"You should've accepted," Ino's voice traveled to her from across the empty pool area. It echoed slightly, and she looked up to see Ino shaking her head in slight disappointment.

"Do you want to be single all your life?" the blonde said, slinging her backpack onto her back, with all of her things packed safely inside.

"This isn't about that," Sakura defended in embarrassment as the girl advanced. The sight of Ino's ice blue eyes surveying her body didn't pass unnoticed, and she couldn't help the pink tint that engulfed her cheeks—she was already uncomfortable enough in her swimsuit.

"It is about that," Ino retorted in a passive kind of way. "The way I see it is that Naruto asks you out pretty frequently, and you keep letting everything possible get in the way of going out on a date with him."

"I don't like him that way. Plus Hinata likes him; I couldn't do that to her."

"Fuck Hinata," Ino scoffed. "If you don't go for what you want, you'll never get it. Take Kakashi for example."

"W-what?" the pink-haired girl stuttered, with her cheeks turning a deeper pink than her hair was.

"I was just like you last year; blushing after him and staring at him. One day, he asked me to stay after class to ask about… well, I don't remember, it was my grade or something. Anyways, to make a long story short, I went for it, and that was an amazing week," she winked playfully at the swimmer and turned away.

"Ino that's… that's so ridiculous! I can't believe you…"

The blonde flinched at the tone of disgust in Sakura's voice and sighed.

Sakura watched the blonde storm into the men's locker room with wide eyes. Surprise filled her as she head yells, shouts, and screams drift out of the door. A few moments of silence and then Ino exited with a smug look on her face.

"Naruto's going to pick you up tomorrow morning for breakfast. Be ready by nine. I'll see you at home," Ino said breathily as she headed towards the exit of the pool. Sakura turned around to see a bunch of half naked guys from the swim team watching after Ino with lusty looks in their eyes.

She rolled her eyes at the guys, annoyed by their uncontrollable sexuality and then sighed, somewhat confused about what to feel. She was certainly envious of Ino's brazen attitude, and was thankful that she had set up a date for her with Naruto, but then at the same time she was not. She didn't feel like she liked Naruto enough to even attempt to date him—and what would she tell Hinata once word got to her about the whole ordeal?

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for not updating in a while. . I had to finish one of my college apps and some scholarship stuff and I was pretty busy with that. Good news is, I updated AND I've applied to college!!! (well, my safety school at least lol). Anyways, thanks for reading and please review!**

**-E.E.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated copyrighted property. All I own is my imagination and therefore, this plot.  
Rating: Mature for language, drug usage, sexual references, and lesbianism (because apparantly, that's only for mature audiences).**

**

* * *

**_"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross_

**Chapter 5**

It had taken Sakura a long time to notice. Christmas came and went, and spring settled in Konoha. Why she hadn't noticed, didn't make much sense, granted that the signs were so ridiculously blatant. Perhaps it should've first occurred to her when she'd be absolutely worried when Ino didn't show up to her soccer matches in the spring. The blonde girl had made it a ritual to go to all of Sakura's swim meets and soccer matches and so the pink haired girl was often very worried when she didn't show up. Thoughts of Ino trying to commit suicide filled her mind and it often distracted her from what she was doing. It had become obvious to her teammates that Ino was a factor in Sakura's performance.

Actually, she had become a factor in the whole team's performance. In the winter, when Ino wasn't around, the guys didn't seem to want to swim as hard. When Ino showed up, it was an all out testosterone fest. Of course the girls on the team were jealous, just as Sakura used to be of the blonde beauty, but Ino was never rude to them or stuck up when she was forced to speak to them at the practices, and if there had been any awkwardness, Sakura credited that to her distrust of human nature. Ino just seemed to be very uncomfortable with just about anyone, of course her masks were almost flawless, but Sakura knew better.

It had only taken her the one time that the team asked Ino to join them for practice for Sakura to know that Ino was still struggling with her image and self-confidence. Ino used every excuse not to get into the pool.

"I'll ruin my make up."

"I don't have any swim suits that fit me."

"I feel sick."

"I forgot how to swim."

"I'm on my period."

Eventually, Ino's resolve cracked and she found herself standing awkwardly next to the pool in a swimsuit of hers. Sakura, like everyone else, couldn't keep her eyes off of Ino. She was obviously still recovering from an eating disorder, but she certainly did look better. Still super-model thin, but it wouldn't take long for her to reach a healthy weight. What worried Sakura wasn't her _still_ thin figure, but the bruises that had darkened her thighs. It was when Sakura's green eyes moved up to Ino's face and saw the fear and apprehension in the blonde's blues that she realized Ino was still very uncomfortable. And the bruises…had Ino been hurting herself?

"Come on; jump in," Sakura coaxed, breaking the trance the beautiful blonde had set everyone in. Ino eased herself into the water, complaining of the cold, and held onto the edge of the pool.

The green eyed girl was immediately annoyed with the lusty look her coach and the other boys were giving Ino, and she fell into a defensive mode. After hearing that Ino had… well, what she assumed was, dated Kakashi she had begun to watch him closely at practice and at school. It turned out that the guy was a grade A pervert. It was not to say he wasn't a good guy, because he was, but he was one of the most perverted men she had ever met.

But with Ino, she thought, it was totally understood, because Ino was one of the most beautiful girls she had ever laid eyes on. Sakura wanted to tell Ino that, because she had missed her opportunity a little while before that, and she regretted that moment. Instead she had blown up at the girl, insulting her respectability.

She had just arrived back home from breakfast with Naruto. He had been a lot calmer and chivalrous than he usually was during their outing—the pink haired girl figured the boy was suffering from intense embarrassment. She tried her hardest to make him feel comfortable, but his cheeks were a constant pink and his voice cracked at least ten times within the two hours they spent with one another. It wasn't unpleasant, but Sakura was convinced that she wasn't interested in him romantically.

On her search around the house for Ino (for the sole purpose of berating the blonde for setting up the date), Moegi informed her in quite the shrewish manner, that Ino was in the backyard. Sakura was a bit concerned about the young girl's attitude, but was soon enlightened as to why she seemed grumpy. Her father, Konohamaru, and Udon were all lined up on the porch watching Ino… tan?

Sakura was absolutely disgusted with the guys, but realized that she herself was having trouble tearing her eyes away from Ino's barely clad form. If she looked this good pencil thin, Sakura could only imagine how wonderful she'd look at her proper weight. The green eyed girl found that her throat was insanely dry as she approached the blonde lying on a towel in the sun.

"Ino… what do you think you're doing?" the pink haired girl inquired in annoyance. She didn't really know why she was suddenly annoyed.

"I'm tanning," Ino replied simply, cracking her eyes open to look up at Sakura who was looking down at her. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to put some clothes on," she snapped. She suddenly realized why she was so annoyed. It was because Ino seemed to have no reserve when it came to parading around in front of guys. She was a total slut.

"Sakura, chill; I'm just tanning. I've gotten as pale as you are and I don't really like that look on me."

"No," the girl retorted, not taking kindly to the insult. "What you're doing is lying in my back yard in a skimpy bikini in front of my dad and stepbrothers! What kind of slut are you?"

Ino sat up, suddenly pissed.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" she stood up with her eyes blazing in anger. "I could just tell that ever since yesterday, when I told you about Kakashi and I, you've been aching to call me a slut or something along those lines. I'll have you know that all I did was kiss him. So you can get the idea of me fucking guys out of your head. The only guy I've _ever_ fucked is Saskue! And look at what's left of me! Look at me, Sakura! Do you think I have _any_ intention of seducing your dad?! Udon?! Konohamaru?!!"

Sakura stared at her like a deer in headlights realizing that she didn't understand Ino at all and that she was allowing her assumptions get in the way of her actually getting to know Ino's character. Her green eyes widened as Ino's breathing became labored.

"Are you ok?" Sakura asked, moving closer to the girl in case she was about to collapse.

"No," Ino breathed deeply, pushing away Sakura's hands. "Just leave me alone."

With that she stalked back into the house, obviously fighting with herself to stay upright.

Sakura was too embarrassed with herself to apologize to Ino until late at night, when they were both trying to go to bed. She had avoided her all day, but realized she couldn't avoid her any longer.

"Ino?"

The blonde didn't answer, but Sakura knew she was awake.

"I'm sorry about earlier… I guess I was just jealous."

"Fuck… Sakura. I don't even know what to say to you."

Ino was mad; she had a right to be mad, however.

"Is that really what you think?" she asked.

"What?"

"That I'm a slut?"

"No… I told you that I was just jealous."

"Jealous of what? That I don't burn in the sun; because that's all you have to be jealous of."

It was then Sakura should've realized that she wasn't jealous of Ino, but jealous of the guys that Ino had seemed to be displaying herself for.

"I don't know how many times I have to remind you how lucky you are," Ino said gently, and Sakura could hear her voice thicken with tears. "You've got a great family, people respect you, and guys like you for being you… not for how you look, or how much money you have."

Sakura sat up so see that Ino was crying, her face halfway into the pillow.

"Do you know how many times Sasuke has called me since I tried to kill myself? Once, and do you know why he called? He had suddenly remembered the weed he left in my car, and wanted it back… he doesn't love me like I loved him. He never did… You have _nothing_ to envy, Sakura," Ino whimpered before staying quiet for allow her breathing to level out.

Sakura got up and sat on the edge of her bed, missing the comfort of the mattress even more once she felt it again. She tentatively wrapped her arms around Ino and hoped that she was doing some sort of good in the situation. It was certainly awkward, granted that she had to lie down next to Ino to hug her properly, but she figured it was an appropriate time to do it.

"I'm not so upset about him not loving me than I am about my life being so shitty that I actually miss him. Despite the fact he didn't love me, he was one of the best things that ever happened to me."

Sobs choked the girl up and she struggled to continue, "Him, and smoking, and drugs. It all made me feel good, and it's hard to not want things like that back in my life, because of it."

* * *

On Ino's side of things, comfort can be taken on the account of Ino actually coming to a conclusion with all that was going on with her and her feelings. However, that's as far as comfort can go. Ino was absolutely terrified of the possibility, and immediately decided to do everything in her power to run away from those feelings. Her first step was to stop going to Sakura's sporting events, and since it was soccer season, she made it her job to not go to the games.

Ino may have been a master mask crafter, but that didn't stop her from hurting when Sakura asked her why she didn't go to the game and she'd reply with, "I didn't feel like going."

Sakura would give her _that look_. That look of dreaded disappointment and sadness. Her green eyes were the clearest windows Ino had ever seen, and she often had to force herself to gaze away from them when telling Sakura things she knew would hurt the other girl.

Sakura certainly didn't deserve the cold shoulder Ino was giving her, but the blonde felt as if there was nothing else she could do. She realized she didn't have the morale to spend so much time with Sakura, and the fact that she was living with the girl didn't help her out at all. She soon found herself partying again on Friday nights; anything to get away from Sakura and her gentle glances and warm smiles.

Anything to get the green eyed girl off of her mind.

It hadn't been that way at first. At first, Ino felt as if she suddenly had a sister—something she remembered always wanting when she was younger—and it was unbelievably enjoyable for her. They'd watch TV together, do each others' hair, do homework together; it was the best thing that had happened to Ino in a long while… but then. Then something happened.

The blonde had been watching one Sunday afternoon as Naruto walked Sakura up from a short outing she agreed to go on with him. As they were walking up to the door, Naruto stopped the pink hair girl and kissed her. Sakura had looked surprised at first, but then Ino watched as she kissed back.

Something inside of her seemed to stop functioning at that exact moment. Numbness seeped through her chest and she suddenly felt tired. When Sakura entered her room, she made sure she was pretending to sleep under the comfortable comforter of the pink haired girl's bed.

And Ino was the kind of person who knew herself thoroughly, so she knew she wasn't envious of Sakura, but Naruto for getting the chance to kiss Sakura. She laid there in bed, silent, with tears burning her eyes as Sakura seemed to confusedly pace around the room before deciding on getting on her laptop to work on something. She immediately knew what was going on and it scared her; it scared her more than anything else. It was her fear that drove her to push Sakura away.

The discomfort continued to mount between them, so much so that Ino just wanted to avoid Sakura at all costs. She couldn't risk her feelings any longer. How would Sakura to react to the knowledge of Ino liking her in that way? Wouldn't she be disgusted? Wouldn't she demand that Ino stay else where—go back home?

Instead of waiting for herself to foolishly act on her feelings and have Sakura ask her to leave; she decided to leave before she was kicked out.

One night at dinner she looked up and made eye contact with Mr. Haruno.

"I want to go home," Ino said, fighting back any physical signs of her distaste of using the word "home" in reference to the place she used to reside.

"What?" the man seemed appalled and Sakura looked up with surprise and worry on her face.

"I want to go back home… I miss it."

Ino briefly made eye contact with Sakura and she immediately knew that the pinkette knew she was lying.

"Um…" Mr. Haruno looked around, pleading for assistance from his wife and Sakura. When they only gave him worried and confused looks her shrugged. "I guess we can take you there tomorrow morning… when would you want to come back?"

"No; I want to go back to my house, and I want to stay there."

"Oh," Mr. Haruno was obviously feeling discomfort—his green eyes relayed it quite clearly. Shizune set her fork down, silently giving Ino a suspicious look.

"Is something wrong?" she asked calmly, concerned. She had noticed the tension building between the two teenagers and she had been anticipating an argument. She'd never expected Ino would want to leave because of it… what was going on?

Silence permeated the atmosphere and Sakura huffed, tossing her fork down onto the table.

She stormed off, up into her room, and Mr. Haruno sighed, looking stressed out. Ino refused to look up at the two adults and merely looked down at her half eaten dinner. She had obviously offended the family, but she needed to leave. She couldn't live like this anymore.

"Ino," Shizune said gently, "now I know you and Sakura have been having a bit of trouble getting along, but I assure you, running away from the problem isn't going to solve it. I used to argue with my sisters all the time, but we always made up afterwards. Same goes for my best friend. She's a bit impulsive and brazen, and she reminds me a bit of Sakura… It's tough to live with these kinds of people, but you can't just let things like this rule your life. If you want to go back to your dad, then fine, it's ok… just remember that you have a family here and that we'll be here for you."

Ino's eyes dampened as she struggled to keep herself from blurting things out. She kept her gaze at the table until a thumping sound on the steps caught her attention. Mr. Haruno shot up and stood at the base of the steps as Sukura came down dragging a large suitcase with her.

"What are you doing?" Mr. Haruno asked, looking angry.

"She said she wanted to leave, so I'm bringing her things down."

"We can do that in the morning, Sakura," the man bit out, sternly. He was obviously upset that Sakura seemed to have no objections to Ino's desire to leave. He was sure the blonde would change her mind in the morning and he had been hoping that Sakura would try to talk some sense into her once she got over her anger.

"No, fuck that, she's leaving right now."

Ino flinched and Mr. Haruno barked at Sakura, "Watch your language!"

"Everyone, just calm down," Shizune tried, obviously wanting to talk some sense into her family.

Sakura shook her head and lugged the bag outside. Mr. Haruno sighed heavily and plopped down on the staircase.

"What is going on?" he sighed once again.

At this point, Ino stood up and followed Sakura outside.

Once Sakura noticed her she shut the trunk of the Ferrari and glared at Ino. The blonde merely stared back, her face void of all emotion. Sakura looked sick, suddenly, and spoke with desperation.

"If it was something I did… I'm sorry."

Ino didn't reply but merely opened up the door to her car.

"Please… Just talk to me," Sakura's voice broke and she felt very weak. "We can figure this out… whatever is wrong. I won't say anything anymore about my soccer games… I don't want you to feel pressured into going. It was selfish of me. I'm sorry. I won't bother you about the parties you go to—that was rude of me. I'm sorry… please, Ino… I'm sorry."

"Just stop, Sakura. I'm leaving… I can't stand it here."

Tears spilled out of green eyes that changed colors at each different hour and Ino felt like the scum of the earth. She watched as Sakura steeled herself and flinched at her following words.

"Fine… Don't ever come back."

The pink haired girl turned on heel and headed back into her house. As the door shut Ino finally let her tears fall and she started her car. Once back at home, the sinking feeling she had been experiencing since she let those words escape her lips at dinner continued.

* * *

Naruto was certainly concerned after seeing that Sakura hadn't come to school on Thursday and that was the reason he called her… not for anything else. Not to have his heart broken.

"Hey, Sakura, what's up? You feeling alright?" the blonde boy asked after she answered the call.

"No, I was feeling a little sick this morning," the pinkette replied, setting down the textbook she was reading. Thanks to the class syllabus, she could easily keep up with everything she had to do if she missed a day. She wasn't really sick, just a bit depressed about Ino's decision to leave… depressed enough to not want to go to school and be questioned about her somber appearance.

"Oh… ok, well I was a little worried when you didn't show up today…"

Sakura could practically feel his blush through the phone.

"Look, Naruto… I don't like you like that."

"What?" he was caught off guard—vulnerable—open.

"We should just be friends… you're not my type. I love you, but not like that."

"Oh…" He suddenly grew very quiet, trying to figure out how the conversation had suddenly turned to this topic.

"I'm sorry," Sakura said with a heavy sigh.

"It's fine… I understand," he mumbled, but Sakura knew that he really didn't because there was nothing to understand at the moment. Nothing made sense.

"I'll talk to you later… ok?"

"Yeah," and with that, he hung up the phone.

Sakura's heart fell even deeper into her chest. That had been one of the toughest things she had ever had to do. She was never one to enjoy hurting people and was sure that she was hurting more than Naruto was at the moment—that's just how she was. With a heavy sigh, she threw the phone down onto her floor and buried her face into her pillow, hoping it would soak up her tears.

The attempt at soaking up her tears with the pillow was futile, for the scent of Ino's hair still lingered.

The next day at school was very awkward for the pinkette. Her friends were all greeting her with "I'm glad you're feeling better" or ,"Good to see you feeling well" and as she listened to them she realized that she wasn't feeling any better than how she was feeling the previous day. She was still feeling depressed, but tried hard to hide it from them. How would it benefit them to know that she was depressed because Ino had left? That she had failed in her mission to help revive Ino; she had probably made Ino more depressed than she was to begin with. Ino had only knew that her life was bad… she had never experienced what she could've had, but didn't, no, not until she had begun to live with the Haruno family.

Sakura had never been the kind of person to seek comfort in anyone; she found it harder to cope with certain things when others knew about it. That was why she avoided going to lunch with her friends… and part of it was because she couldn't stand to see Naruto after she had been so uncharacteristically brash with him.

"Sakura?"

The voice startled her and she turned to see that Hinata was a few feet away from her.

"Oh… Hey Hinata," the girl said before turning back to look across the baseball field. Sakura didn't bother to wonder how Hinata had stumbled across her hiding out behind the science building.

The girl took a seat beside Sakura and tucked her knees up to her chest so that she could have somewhere to rest her chin.

"Is everything ok?"

Sakura looked up at the girl, whose eyes looked as if they lacked the ability to see, gently questioning her knowledge and awareness. How did Hinata seem to know?

"Why do you ask?" Sakura mumbled, looking back out over the field.

"Well… I saw Ino earlier… and s-she was… um, with Sasuke."

"She what?" Sakura's hair suddenly stood on end.

"S-she was smoking behind t-the school with Sasuke."

Sakura sighed and shook her head.

"Hinata… has there ever been… no," Sakura changed the direction of what she was going to say. "…. Have you ever worked really hard on something, only to have it slip away from you right when you were almost done with it? You know… like when you're working hard on an essay on the computer and the power goes out?"

Hinata hesitated and then shook her head.

"Microsoft Word has a file recovery, though it's p-pretty inefficient. It only saves s-so much. But that's better than n-nothing, r-right?"

Sakura gave Hinata a gentle smile and then heaved a heavy sigh.

"I guess you're right… I was just going to give her some space. I worry that the space I've given her has made her inaccessible."

This reminded Sakura of her petty worries of the earth slipping away from the gravitational pull of the sun when she was younger. Yeah, she was pretty nerdy back then, but her fears were legitimate at the time—every little kid worried about dying in peculiar ways. Freezing to death due to the lack of warmth was one of them. (1)

Sakura had to wonder who exactly the sun was in this situation… Had she looked back at the beginning of this whole ordeal, she would've certainly awarded herself the title of life sustaining orb of heat, but now she was wondering if the roles had suddenly switched on her. Ino suddenly meant so much to her and she was afraid that she had let herself become to dependant on Ino's presence. Her silent observation and random, offhand comments had become an everyday thing for the green eyed girl. Sakura looked forward to waking up, each morning, to see that Ino was making use of the bed she had stolen from her. She was happy to see the girl without make-up, vulnerable, and real. She was happy to see her faint smiles when she found something funny—she rarely straight out laughed at things.

"Sakura?"

"Hm?" the girl replied, having forgotten that Hinata was still there.

"I think you're doing the right thing." (2)

With that, Hinata left her to her thoughts.

* * *

1- What a NERD! But I'll embarassedly admit that similar thoughts began to torment me when I heard that NASA found water on the moon... please, don't even ask. haha  
2- Doing the right thing is so hard when you want to be selfish and do what would please you.

**A/N: Erm, sorry about not updating for so long. I'd take the time to list excuses here, but I'm sure you don't want to read my whiney complaints about the things going on in my life. But yeah, I've edited this chapter like five times and it's still not how I would like it to be, but oh well. Review and tell me what you think; I think I'm struggling with this shorter length story (that IS my intent for this story at least...) Oh, but I do have good news: I've thought up another Sango/Kagome story and so I'll start on that once I'm done with this.**

**Thanks for reading, review please!  
-E.E.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated copyrighted property. All I own is my imagination and therefore, this plot.  
Rating: Mature for language, drug usage, sexual references, and lesbianism (because apparantly, that's only for mature audiences).**

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* * *

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_"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." -Benjamin Disraeli_

**Chapter 6**

Ino sat by herself in her car during lunch. She wanted time alone—away from the people she had once again found herself associated with. She wanted to breathe a breath of fresh air. She wanted to take a nap, to sleep the day away. She wanted food; she was hungry.

It was normal to feel this way. She often had the munchies due to her bad habit of smoking weed, but last week she had told herself she was done with weed. Done with Sasuke. He was still as useless and selfish as ever. Sick of him, she dumped him, promising herself she'd never go back to him. He would never seduce her again. She'd never take anything from him again; not sex, not weed, not money.

Done.

Through.

Finished.

No more Sasuke.

The thought of it excited her. She had finally given up one addiction and with that she had also shed her addiction to weed. She could be happy without them, right? She could live her life properly, without having to get high to feel good, right?

No… she'd rid herself of Sasuke and drugs, but she hadn't rid herself of depression or discontentment and she only knew of one thing that made her forget her problems, completely.

That one thing was a person and that person never wanted to see her again. The mere thought of that hurt her deeply. It made her want to run back to Saskue, to lose herself in the haze of nonsense her mind transformed into after smoking for a long time. Fuck, there was hardly anything she wouldn't give right then to be rid of her depressing thoughts. It was just as before except…

Except, she knew she had a reason to live now. She didn't want to kill herself—she had a purpose now. She needed to get better for Sakura. She needed to regain her confidence and her strength. Then, and only then, would she approach Sakura and attempt to ask for forgiveness. That was her only escape left.

The weeks blew by and Ino managed school rather easily with her new health plan. She'd eat 3 meals a day and exercise for 30 minutes. It seemed simple enough, but with her new addiction to sleep it was a struggle to find the inspiration to actually get up and go for a jog or even do crunches and push ups.

The end of soccer season was approaching and Ino hoped to go to at least one last game. She would attend the last home game of the season, and it happened to be senior night. Would Sakura be excited to see her? She hoped so, because she knew that Sakura had been going out of her way to avoid her and she managed not to see Sakura at all at school. It was a bit depressing, but it drove her to continue what she was doing to please Sakura.

Sakura was all she thought about anymore. The thought of Sakura made her push herself when she was jogging to jog a bit more, it made her study a little longer and show up at school on time.

This obsession scared her, but that was ok. She could finally embrace it and she knew that she only had one shot at this and that she needed to do it right. Ino refused to be the fuck up any longer.

* * *

The week seemed to be going by very slowly for Sakura. It seemed as if everywhere she turned she _almost_ ran into Ino. She was concerned so much about the possibility of having to talk to her that she almost missed the glaring truth: Ino was actually going to class at school. She was no longer skipping as much as she used to.

The news of her official break up with Sasuke was all over the school. The boy had his ego hurt and subsequently told the whole school that he had slept with Ino. When that seemed to fail at fazing the girl, he spread a nasty rumor about her having STDs. That only backfired on him because he had previously confessed to sleeping with her.

No girl wanted to touch him.

Ino seemed oblivious to this all, Sakura noted. Whenever she'd see Ino, the blonde girl seemed completely out of it and half asleep. Perhaps she had found a new drug to play around with, Sakura worried. Maybe she was spending time outside of school with all the boys who obviously had crushes on her and adored her; lusted for her. She was single again—there was only one girl the boys wanted. Sakura worried about Ino and whether or not she'd be able to resist and fend them off.

Whatever the case, she decided that she'd stick to her decision of giving Ino her space and she hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks. She worried about not being able to keep an eye on Ino, but the gossip about the blonde had yet to die down so she assumed she was still at school doing whatever it was she was doing.

Sakura focused on what she felt should be her biggest focus. She had been accepted into a pretty decent college and she was still doing well in school. All she had to do was finish soccer season and then it would be a smooth ride to graduation. Their soccer team was pretty bad so they had their last game of the season on Wednesday. Sakura felt that if she could properly get over the loss of her sporadic friendship with Ino she could breeze into her new, upcoming life.

The game on Wednesday was rather pointless. They were playing the worst team in the conference, so it was a guaranteed win. Sakura was very focused on just getting it over with. As she played she realized that her heart was nowhere in the game and she felt that it wasn't because they were playing a crappy team. She had begun to notice an apathy growing within her—one that made her care very little about the things that she did. Was this because of Ino? She didn't know really.

Stealing the ball easily from one of the players she made her way downfield and passed it towards one of her teammates. A girl on the other team tried way too hard to intercept the pass and kicked it out of bounds. The referee tossed Sakura the ball as she headed towards the sideline for the throw in. It was then that Sakura spotted Ino, sitting amongst the crowd looking a bit uncomfortable and cold. The blonde smiled at her hesitantly and Sakura momentarily forgot how to breathe; her heart seemed to clog up her chest. (1) She was unprepared for the appearance of the girl and managed to trip slightly on absolutely nothing. Blushing, she turned away and focused unreasonably hard on throwing the ball into the field.

With that task completed, she distractedly played the game.

* * *

Ino was nervous… no she was beyond nervous when she approached Sakura after the game. Green eyes cornered her and she was frozen to the spot—she knew she had to say what she needed to, for there was no escape.

"Sakura… I'm sorry," Ino breathed lightly, shoving her hands into her pockets. Sakura merely looked at her, surveying her physical appearance. Ino looked so much stronger on her feet and she seemed to have a healthy glow about her face.

"It's ok," was all Sakura replied, still standing there as if there was more to say. "I see… um, you're looking good."

It was only after she said it that she realized that her compliment could've been taken more than one way. Strangely enough, she wanted Ino to take it those ways. The blonde blushed, bringing her left hand out of her pocket to brush some hair away from her face. She had worn her hair down to impress Sakura. Suddenly, she felt like she was back in middle school suffering from an insanely cute crush. However, this time she wasn't infatuated with someone who'd assist her in destroying herself…

"Do you want to come over?" she blurted, averting her eyes quickly and sharply.

"What?"

"To my house… tonight. To chat, maybe watch a movie," Ino murmured before looking back up at Sakura.

"Well, it's a school night. I'll have to ask my dad if it's ok."

"Ok," Ino said watching Sakura head off to talk to her dad who had been watching them from a couple of yards away. Ino decided to look around, anywhere but Sakura and her father, for fear of seeming like a creeper. She felt a slight twinge of pain in her chest at the idea of a father who cared so much about his daughter's studies that he usually forbids her from socializing during the week. It was a bit obsessive, but it was… cute.

"He said it was alright," the pinkette's voice sounded behind her, startling her. Turning she looked at Sakura and smiled.

"Ok, cool. I'll go ahead and head home then; I'll see you in a little bit,"

Ino waited rather impatiently at her house, anxious for the girl to arrive. She had bought a bag of chips and a bottle of soda for the movie, granted that Sakura wanted to even stay for that. She'd be getting home rather late if she did. The sound of the doorbell startled her out of her racing thoughts. Jumping up she made her way downstairs and hesitated briefly, wondering if perhaps they should watch the movie downstairs because she remembered Sakura mentioning one time how she didn't like her room. Brushing away the contemplation after a while she opened up the door and ushered Sakura in.

"Hey," Ino said nervously rubbing at the side of her neck.

"Hey. Gees, I was worried I'd have to break in again," Sakura joked and Ino could only smile at the green eyed girl's wit.

"Nah, I'm over that," Ino said without any thought before turning away from Sakura and heading towards the staircase. "I set up the movie in my room."

"Cool," Sakura said before pausing. "Oh, actually, I meant to ask… Is if ok if I took a shower first? I'm kind of gross and sweaty right now."

"Oh, yeah, sure," Ino's cheeks bloomed red when she turned back to Sakura to reply.

Ino led Sakura upstairs and the green eyed girl showed herself into the bathroom with her bag filled with clothes. Flopping down onto her bed Ino tried to quell her anxiety and nervousness. She knew it was a pointless endeavor because she knew what she was going to tell Sakura—once she made up her mind, there was no changing it. Yet, she didn't want to risk the friendship she could see blooming again, budding after a cold hard winter.

Lying this way, face down on the bed, the blonde could feel her pulse thrumming in her neck; its tempo had slowed, but its magnitude was thunderous. She allowed her eyes to droop just a bit and she suddenly felt the fatigue of the week hit her. Her ears picked up the absence of the sound of the shower, but she did not physically respond to the change. She merely observed it.

Sakura soon exited the shower and with her came a wave a heat and the fresh scent of Ino's shampoo and body wash.

Sakura stood next to the bed and Ino glanced up at her. The pink haired girl gave a lopsided smirk and began to speak.

"Your bathroom is really n—" her sentence was cut short when the other girl reached out and grabbed her wrist only to pull her down onto the bed. The way Sakura fell was certainly strange. She was turned onto her side and her arm, with Ino's hand still clutching her wrist, was tucked beneath her body in an awkwardly painful way. Sakura turned, rolling slightly and contorting herself even further, to give the blonde a questioning look. This only lasted a brief moment, however, because Sakura then rolled the other way to put herself in a more comfortable position.

Ino's hand was still clutching her wrist. Ino was hypersensitive when it came to the contact—her own hand felt so strange to her. She let go of Sakura's wrist and mumbled an apology. Her eyes were glued to the patterns on her bed sheets.

"It's cool," the green eyed girl smiled almost reflexively.

A moment passed before Sakura spoke gently, "You look a bit tired."

Ino sighed before saying, "Just a little… I haven't been sleeping very well. I bet you're tired too; you just ran up and down a soccer field for nearly an hour."

"I'm alright," Sakura managed to shrug before taking a deep breath. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Us."

Ino's response was so frank and straightforward that it took Sakura by surprise. Suddenly, she was a bit unnerved, but she couldn't exactly put her finger on why. The blonde's blue eyes seemed to be filled with some sort of determination and she wondered what Ino could've been thinking about so passionately.

"Well… I was waiting for you to, I don't know, decide you wanted to be friends again… I mean, I figured that was the right thing to do," Sakura spoke rather awkwardly.

"It was… thank you for giving me time to figure myself out; things aren't perfect yet, but I'm trying to fix myself and I hope that you'll be wiling to help me out again."

Her voice was soft and hesitant. Sakura smiled at her and nodded and Ino slid her hand over the pinkette's which was facing palm up. Ino's hand was a bit chilly, especially so at the fingertips, and Sakura's was warm from her shower. With eyes sky blue eyes glued to Sakura's green eyes she slipped her fingers between Sakura's waiting for any sort of response from the girl other than a surprised expression.

Ino listened to her deep shaky breathing and her pounding heart—she could hear Sakura's soft rapid breaths and could see the gentle pink tint filling her cheeks. Time seemed to stop all together.

It was beautiful.

And it seemed even more so when Sakura relaxed her tense muscles and closed her fingers around Ino's hand. They laid in silence listening to one another breathe. Sakura's mind was racing and she brewed over what was going on. Had that been an acceptance of some sort? An acceptance of what? Did that matter? Ino looked so relaxed right now—so content—and she could see the smile in her eyes even if it wasn't on her lips. Such lovely blue eyes, so deep and intense.

Sakura felt really self-conscious because of how closely Ino seemed to be watching her, but she was comfortable as well.

"I don't know," Sakura mumbled. "I'm pretty comfortable right now… I could do without the movie and just fall asleep. If you want to watch it, you should just hit play already."

"I could just fall asleep too," Ino smiled slightly, just as she always does.

"Is that what you want?"

Nodding, Ino glanced at their intertwined fingers. "What do you want, Sakura?"

Sakura knew that this question was not about the movie. It was about what was going on or what could go on between them. Shaking her head she pursed her lips gently, "I can't answer that question right now." (2)

Ino, accepting that, reached forward and gently touched Sakura's dampened hair. It looked strange wet; almost magenta in some spots.

"I can't think right now… too tired," she continued with a deep laziness in her voice.

Ino noticed it was only about nine-thirty, but she too was exhausted from the week. Sakura was the first to slip into slumber and Ino followed soon after, admiring the girl's resting face and wondering how things would work out once they really got to talking about it.

* * *

1- I love and hate that feeling; you know, when you see the person you like and it's like everything stops abruptly and when it all comes rushing back it causes that feeling when reality hits you.  
2- This is smart of Sakura, don't you agree? I never let myself answer questions like that when I'm really tired or emotional. That's because I'm a _really_ logical person and I know that my brain doesn't function too sharply at night. But thinking things through leaves room for answers that aren't the whole truth... Perhaps that's my one flaw. Now Sakura has it too. lol

**A/N: Progress? I think so. Anyways, sorry for disappearing for a while. I also apologize for the short chapter. It's been a hectic couple of weeks (and I will spare you the details). I've just finished up with exams and have a short break, so I will hopefully be able to finish this story in about 2 chapters by the end of Jan.(which is a goal I'm sure I'll not obtain, but I will try).**


	7. Chapter 7

******Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated copyrighted property. All I own is my imagination and therefore, this plot.  
Rating: Mature for language, drug usage, sexual references, and lesbianism (because apparantly, that's only for mature audiences).**

**A/N: There is a rather lengthy author's note at the end of this, sorry to get your hopes up (I know you look at the length of the scroll bar before you read; I do it, therefore everyone else does... do you see this pathetic attempt I'm making at being normal? lol). It's a somewhat short chapter.**

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**_I hold it true, whate'er befall;  
I feel it, when I sorrow most;  
'Tis better to have loved and lost  
Than never to have loved at all.  
-Alfred Tennyson_

**Chapter 7**

The desk was cool against her cheek as her mind wandered.

The morning had been awkward.

She had woken up, tangled up in Ino's bed, wrapped in her arms. It just didn't seem right to her. Ino was the girl who all the guys wanted. Ino was the girl who was rich and envied, beautiful and tempting, mysterious, smart… Sakura realized she was flattered that Ino liked her in that way and she wasn't repulsed in any way. She'd gotten through the denial stage of bisexuality quite some time ago. She wasn't an active pursuer of interests, if someone was into her, she'd usually give them a chance and she never thought once of turning someone away because of their gender. However, she'd never dated a girl before.

And it was Ino of all people. What a catch, right? But Sakura was worried about other things at the moment. Surely Ino was still reordering her life. She _said_ she was done with everything, but how was she supposed to be sure about that? And what of the situation of college next year? The green eyed girl realized all she needed to do was talk with Ino. It'd take a while, but she wouldn't mind.

Wondering why she was so tired, she shut her eyes and listened as closely as one who was distracted with fatigue could to her teacher.

The day went on without event and Sakura felt like that was wrong too. She felt different, mentally, emotionally—something. The lack of pathetic fallacy was alarming to her, but she knew the world didn't change at her whim. She just felt it should've. (1) Had anything significant even happened to her? She couldn't just start jumping to conclusions about her relationship with Ino. What if they decided that they didn't want it?

Lunch was the usual. Naruto was goofing off and Hinata was quietly observing him; Choji was eating his (and everyone else's) lunch, stealthily of course, and Lee was dramatically reciting poetry. It was too loud in the cafeteria. Sakura just wanted—

"My princess, are you ok?" Lee asked, falling into the seat beside her.

"I'm fine, just tired," she shrugged.

Unfortunately, Lee's question directed everyone's attention to Sakura and her pathetic demeanor.

"Sakura?"

It was Naruto this time. The girl still struggled with looking him in his innocent blue eyes.

"Really guys, I'm fine. I'm just tired," Sakura asserted with a strong mask in place.

The guys accepted it, but Hinata gave her a skeptical look. After a few seconds, they continued what they were doing and Sakura could only smile at her friends. She wouldn't have liked if they were more perceptive, it would totally ruin this outward image of strength that she had crafted.

"Sakura, I'm going to the b-bathroom. Can you come with me?"

Cursing under her breath, she agreed and followed Hinata away from the table with her hands buried deep in her pockets. She should've known to not expect Hinata to just let it go. They ended up heading down a deserted hallway, but stopping a few yards shy of the bathroom.

"Is it Ino?" Hinata asked with a blush.

"Yes," the green eyed girl replied before heaving a heavy sigh.

Hinata smiled wryly, and it was then that Sakura noticed the girl was wearing a bit of makeup. It was different, but certainly pretty.

"You look very nice today, by the way," Sakura smiled as Hinata's blush engulfed her face and neck. With skin as pale as hers, her blushes were extraordinary. "I'm fully confident that Naruto's going to ask you to prom this year."

"I hope so," the girl spoke gently with a soft smile. She looked up at her pink haired friend and shook her head a bit, "You're so good at distractions."

"Man, I thought I'd done it," Sakura laughed gently, taking a seat on the ground with her back against a locker. The sound it made as she leant back on it seemed louder to her than it actually was. Hinata took a seat and adjusted her skirt looking a bit uncomfortable.

"You said it was Ino… Are you worried about her? She's been coming to class more."

It was then Sakura remembered that Hinata was in class with Ino.

"What's she like?" Sakura asked. Hinata looked confused and with a shy smile Sakura elaborated, "What's she like, in class? Does she sleep? Does she pay attention?"

"Well… She's… she's there. S-sometimes it looks like she's sleeping… But w-when the teacher calls on her, she always knows the answer."

Hinata gave her a scrutinizing look, as if she was trying to figure out why Sakura was asking about Ino's participation in her English class.

"Hinata, last night Ino invited me over to her house, after my game. We didn't really talk about what's happened. We never apologized to each. I kind of just fell asleep. But… We started talking about something, something I'm not sure I should mention, but I really need to talk about it with someone. I want to talk about it with her, but I want to figure everything out in my head first."

"I don't understand…" Hinata trailed off, looking confused.

"I think Ino asked me out last night."

"W-what?" The look Hinata was giving her was one of confusion, but not disgust. "What did you say?"

"I said I needed to think about it. I'd never really thought of dating a girl before… but I'd never dismissed the idea from my possibilities. It's just Ino is… Ino isn't the type of girl I'd want, even if I did decide I wanted to start dating girls. She's wild and fast paced… experienced. I don't want that, but everything about her draws me in. I'm so confused."

Sakura buried her face into her arms as she rested them upon her tucked in knees. Why was this so hard? She could only wonder.

She felt Hinata timidly pull her into a hug and she didn't argue with that. Hinata was warm, and she smelled nice, and she was comfortable despite her awkward nature. Hinata was such a good friend.

"If everything about her attracts you, then you should," she cleared her throat, probably mulling over how to say what she was going to say next. "You should talk to her about these worries you have. Let her know what to e-expect from you. Let her know what you want."

"_What do you want, Sakura?"_

"I don't know what I want."

"You have to know."

"I…" Sakura thought long and hard, trying to imagine herself with Ino, but all she could think of was the old friendship they shared. Was that all she wanted, really? All of those feelings she had been feeling before Ino pulled away for the second time, is that what they meant?

* * *

Ino's blue eyes could only take in the image of Hinata wrapping her arms around Sakura as the two sat together on the floor. Sakura was leaning up against the girl, hiding her face from the world.

What was going on?

She wasn't suspicious of the scene. She knew that Hinata and Sakura were pretty much best friends. And Hinata was far to shy to make a pass at Sakura, and she probably wasn't even gay… Yet, that meant that something was wrong. Something was wrong with Sakura. Was it her reappearance? She wanted to do nothing more than go and comfort the pink hair girl, but Hinata seemed to be coaxing words out of her.

Taking a deep breath, refusing to stall any longer, she advanced towards the girl she had been looking for. Hinata was the first one to notice her and she looked like a deer in headlights, but she always looked like that when she noticed Ino had acknowledged her with her eyes. Sakura looked up, probably noticing Hinata tense and also looked like a deer in headlights.

Ino was saddened to see that her favorite green eyes were wet with unshed tears.

"Hey," Ino said, not betraying any of the trillions of thoughts that were bouncing about her head. "Is it ok if I steal Sakura away for a little while?"

When Hinata finally grasped that Ino was addressing her she nodded and released Sakura from her hold. Sakura seemed to stand up reluctantly, but then smiled at Ino.

The blonde knew it was a fake smile.

It was then she began to prepare herself for rejection.

Her mind was brewing up things to say to make Sakura change her mind. She refused to lose what she'd worked so hard for. She couldn't be happy with anyone else—she knew this—because…

"I want to talk about last night," Ino started with a blush. Her hair was back up in its signature ponytail and she was hoping that a clear view of her face would be enough to convince Sakura of her sincerity.

"Me too," the pinkette said with a half smile.

"I know you Sakura," Ino began, not waiting any longer. "I know you'll try your hardest not to hurt me, but this is about what you want. I won't force you into saying yes when you're heart's not into it. That's what my parents did and… well, to get to the point, I apologize for just coming out of nowhere with this. I'm sure you weren't prepared for it because I certainly wasn't. I've never liked another girl before… it surprises me, how I feel about you… Just give me the truth. You've always told me the truth. I need that more now than I ever have."

She stopped talking and wet her lips unconsciously. Her throat was getting tight. This was too hard, the anticipation. Her nerves were practically dying.

She heard Sakura's deep breath; she felt it in her soul, ghosting about like distant memories. She too breathed in, gently, silently, waiting. Deep green eyes met her blue and she felt weak. Ino knew what she wanted. Ino didn't know what Sakura wanted. This was how it was; this was how it always was.

"This is too hard," Sakura mumbled, rubbing at her scalp as she buried a hand into her hair messy pink hair. "Ino, I'm really drawn to you but…"

"But…?"

"I'm… I'm afraid. I'm scared of this—of you! It's absurd, really," Sakura laughed a little at the end. "You've always been this untouchable person in my mind. Too perfect. Too surreal. And now you're here, and you've been through so much, and you've been humbled, and I don't know how to accept you. I feel like you're just playing with me. I feel like this is just one big cruel joke that I'm going to walk right into and you and your friends are all going to laugh at me."

"Why would I go through so much trouble to…? I would never do that to you."

Sakura merely looked at her, nodding her head, mentally berating herself for saying something so stupid.

"I understand, but that's what it feels like to me. I know it's not true, but things like this just don't happen."

"That's what I thought when I was sitting in bed and realized I actually _did_ want to live. I should've died that night Sakura. I appreciate you, but saving my life wasn't what started these feelings. It was the fact that you wanted me around, that you looked at me as if I was a person that was deserving of everything in this world—the good and the bad. No one else has ever looked at me this way. Maybe you don't even know it, Sakura, but when you look at me, I feel so… There's no where else I want to be but in your eyes."

Sakura blushed. This was too much for her. She didn't know what to do. Silence settled between them and Ino looked away uncomfortably. She was beginning to feel miserable. Her arms felt cold, even though this was the warmest day they had seen in a month.

"I'm afraid too," the blonde spoke in a voice very unlike her own. It was small and frightened. Sakura gave her a questioning look, obviously still struggling with her answer. "I'm afraid because of how Sasuke treated me, and because of my fucked up family…"

"I'm afraid, but I'm taking a chance, and that's all that matters right now," Ino spoke, and Sakura flinched because it was a little harsh, yet it was deserved.

"Look," Sakura finally said, and Ino's breath hitched in her throat. "Let's get this straight; if this is going to work, I need you to promise me you'll try your best to stay away from all of that stuff you were into before. I can't have you ruining yourself again. And—"

She didn't get to finish her sentence because Ino tackled her in a hug and buried her face into her neck. Sakura tensed up, surprised, and worried that she'd fall over. She found her balance rather quickly and wrapped her arms around Ino waiting for the girl to say something. Ino was reveling in Sakura's warm embrace—it felt so right to her.

"What makes you think I'll need any of that… or even want it?" Ino mumbled, making her already muffled voice hard to hear.

"I'm not saying you will… just… I really don't want that to happen again."

"It won't, I promise." The smile on Ino's face was wide, and she looked up at Sakura with tears in her eyes.

"Oh, please, don't do that," Sakura muttered.

"What?"

"Cry; gees, I hate that," Sakura smiled, shaking her head. "This is weird. Does this seem weird to you?"

"Yeah, but I like it. It's a nice weird."

The green eyed girl smiled and peeled Ino away from her.

"Come and sit at my lunch table. I think we're making Hinata nervous," she said taking Ino's hand.

The blonde blushed, having forgotten that Hinata was even right there, just down the hallway, watching them.

"Ok," Ino nodded. "But isn't Hinata always nervous?"

"Good point," Sakura laughed gently. "She's alright though. She's alright with us, but I want the guys to know too."

"The guys?"

"My friends. Stop acting so shy and just come with me, gees."

"I'll come with you," Ino snickered, and it was then a look of realization hit Sakura's eyes. (2)

"Oh, aren't we mature," the sarcastic remark came with a slight laugh and a hot blush.

Ino kept laughing and allowed Sakura to pull her down the hallway, their fingers still intertwined, just like the night before. Suddenly Ino stopped and Sakura looked back only to be pulled close to Ino. The blonde girl took her cheeks into her hands and pulled her forwards for a kiss. She was worried that perhaps she'd completely miss Sakura's lips, but she didn't and it was perfect.

It ended as quickly as it started and Ino was heading the opposite direction. She had slipped away from the green eyed girl in her moment of surprise.

"The bell's about to ring! I'll call you later," Ino said, heading away with a smug smile on her face. This relationship was going to be amazingly fun, and for the first time ever, Ino was looking forward to every moment she had before her.

* * *

1- Pathetic fallacy would be a blessing. I hate when I've had a terrible day, and it's all nice and warm and sunny outside. I feel like nature is mocking me. Damn you mother nature. damn you.  
2- Heh heh, I guess I'm not mature. Oh well.

**A/N: Alright, well that's it. I know last chapter I said I had 2 more chapters, but then I realized, after reading my story plan, that it was only supposed to be about 6 chapters long. I went over one to add more closure (I did this with my last story too... I really need to stop feeling guilty about not cutting the story off at a clean point). So this is the last chapter. Enjoy it... erm, i mean, I hope you enjoyed it. Also:**

**For the anonymous reviewer who left me the question about whether or not I smoke weed; I wrote you a semi-long response. I was in a somewhat terrible mood when I wrote it, and I wanted to edit it so I didn't seem so abrasive, but I didn't so here it is, raw and unrefined (because I'm lazy):  
**Wow. I really wasn't expecting that. To just straight out answer your question: NO. I have never smoked weed and I never plan to. I don't do anything like that. I'm a goody goody; the worst I've done was cheat on a spelling test in 2nd grade (and to tell you the whole story, I got caught and never cheated again; but hey, I'm an excellent speller now). I hate that kind of stuff, so I am a bit biased, but that's not from any sort of outside influence. I'm biased on my own terms; I live by my observations and experiences and use that to form opinions. (And I don't believe "opinion" means "truth"). I know and have family, friends, and loved ones who did/do weed. They've told me about their experiences to the best of their abilities, and the majority of them were actually trying to get me to try it (so I suppose their accounts were biased). I know what it can do to a person and I personally don't support the use of it. Perhaps I'm bitter about my failed relationships due to things like this. I liked a guy once, more than I should've, and he flat out told me he would pick weed over me. Call me selfish, but I just wasn't having that. And I can't stand the idea that every single person I've liked (all except 2) didn't have the will power to not let chemicals control them (ok, I'm digressing a bit here from pot to cigarettes, but it's all the same in my eyes). I know the facts; there aren't any chemicals in it to cause addiction blah blah blah, but I don't find any sort of intrinsic value in something that clogs up the brain and makes a person act like a fool. There is no need to lose one's sense; as humans, that's the only thing we really do have over all of the other animals. Without it, we are... well, you know, sea slugs.


End file.
